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PRZOOM - /newswire/ -
New York, NY, United States, 2012/04/12 - Integration of solar photovoltaics into the structure of a school building in Lower Manhattan creates both an opportunity for education, and a renewable power source for the institution - altPOWER.com.
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Students and faculty of Battery Park City’s new environmentally-friendly public school PS/IS 276 are greeted with a lesson in renewable energy each day as they pass below the altPOWER, Inc. transparent photovoltaic glass canopy on their way to school. Perhaps a familiar sight in the neighborhood, as each of ten buildings developed in Battery Park City since 2001 have included altPOWER’s photovoltaic systems, the integration visually into the structure and conceptually into the curriculum of the school provides a generation of Manhattan residents new ways to understand how productive a landscape the urban environment can be. As the world becomes increasingly urban, alternative energy sources like the building-integrated photovoltaics at PS/IS 276 become an important use of the main surface area of the city – the buildings’ skin.
The 50 kilowatts of solar modules installed at the school can power, over the course of a year, 50% of the school’s lighting. This and other offsets are described in the curriculum-integrated data monitoring system that dynamically reads the solar production and other site-specific environmental conditions, and ties the data into a web-based interface and video monitor for public and academic use. The comprehensive thinking by PS/IS 276’s Dattner Architects integrated sustainable strategies from the beginning of the project to cut traditional school operations costs and create opportunities for educating the students.
An outdoor classroom was integrated on an upper floor, where students can experiment with cultivating plants, measuring rainfall, and other curriculum-based activities beneath a transparent louvered photovoltaic canopy that provides dappled shade to the south-facing space, and produces energy. In fact, no space was wasted – even the mechanical equipment at the top of the school (a necessity in as dense a place as Manhattan) was spanned and shaded by louvered photovoltaic modules, to increase the equipment’s efficiency, and produce renewable energy at the same time.
Navigating the complexities of urban renewable energy can be challenging, and altPOWER (altpower.com) has been an integral part of Battery Park City’s renewable energy legacy, collaborating with renowned architects and engineers to create project-specific photovoltaic solutions for every project developed in the neighborhood since The Solaire first broke ground in 2001. As a US pioneer for urban renewable energy and building-integrated photovoltaic systems, the Battery Park City Authority has created a legacy for all of New York and the nation.
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marissa[.]altpower.com 
