Blackstone, through funds it manages on behalf of its real estate investors, and Ivanhoé Cambridge, a real estate subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, have plans to build the largest private multifamily residential rooftop solar project in the United States.
The project will be run by StuyTown Property Services (SPS), the property management company of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.
This 3.8-megawatt (DC) solar energy system will span across the property’s 22 acres of rooftops. Once completed, StuyTown will have tripled Manhattan’s capacity to generate solar power. NYC-based renewable energy developer Onyx Renewable Partners is project developer for the installation, which is expected to begin this winter and reach completion in 2019.
The installation will consist of 9,671 high-efficiency solar panels and will generate enough energy to power over 1,000 New York City apartments annually. The project is expected to offset approximately 63,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, comparable to removing 12,000 cars from the road for a year.
StuyTown is the first multifamily building in New York City to have received an ENERGY STAR certification, which it has won three years in a row for its sophisticated energy management technologies. Other sustainable initiatives at the property have included the installation of LED lighting, high-efficiency hot water heat exchangers, elevator shaft louvers to minimize heat loss and domestic water flow control valves, as well as incorporating the use of a centralized building management system to control steam heating distribution and manage all of its sustainable initiatives. The community has been particularly active and enthusiastic in supporting StuyTown’s compost waste pickup, averaging just over 10,000 pounds of organic material collected weekly — representing 17 percent of all residential compost waste collected in Manhattan. StuyTown has already reduced onsite greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent since 2007, and has now expanded into the solar sphere as part of its larger commitment to environmental sustainability.
StuyTown is the largest rental apartment complex in the United States, with 11,200-plus multifamily units in 56 buildings across 80 acres in Manhattan’s East Village. It houses more than 27,000 New Yorkers and represents 1.7 percent of Manhattan’s population.
