June 9 – Renewable energy from Italy arrives in the United States thanks to Building Energy, an Italian company active in the production of energy from renewable sources in Italy and abroad, and to ABM, the American group for facility management services. Building Energy and ABM announced the construction of a solar photovoltaic power plant of 2 MW at Cornell University, in Ithaca (upstate New York). “This project – said the two companies in a statement – is just a first step in the field of alternative energy for the prestigious university. Building Energy will own and finance the solar plant in partnership with Distributed Sun LLC, which developed the project for Cornell, while ABM provide Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) and technical and administrative management (O & M) services.” The 6,500 “Lansing” solar panels will provide energy at Cornell University at fixed rates and low cost for 30 years, duration of the contract, allowing the University to save money, given that utility costs are bound to increase in the coming years. The system will generate an average of 2.2 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year. A section of the power plant will be reserved for academic use, to enable students to gain physical access to the site and manage 10 solar panels and the Web-based dashboard of the monitoring software. Energy and energy consumption data will be available to the public in real-time.
