Industrial, Solar, Sourcing Renewables  -  June 18, 2019

Continental celebrates rooftop solar in NY

Continental Building Products commemorated the completion of the largest rooftop solar system in the Con Edison utility system and one of the largest in New York State. The North American manufacturer of gypsum drywall and complementary finishing products installed the 2.4-megawatt solar installation on the company’s Buchanan manufacturing facility along the Hudson River in Westchester County.

Continental worked with Entersolar on financing structures, engineering, installation and project management. The project was funded, in part, through more than $1.4 million received from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) through NY-Sun, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s $1 billion NY-Sun initiative to advance the scale-up of solar and move New York State closer to having a sustainable, self-sufficient solar industry. NY-Sun projects help support Governor Cuomo’s nation-leading Green New Deal which calls for 70% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable resources by 2030.

“Building a system of this scale was not something we entered into lightly.  In addition to recognizing financial benefit from the system, it was important to us to give back to the community and our environment," said Jay Bachmann, president and CEO of Continental, in a statement. "By utilizing community solar, we developed a system that would not only reduce the demand on the grid, but would be shared by our neighbors as well,” said Jay Bachmann, president and CEO of Continental.

In an effort to share the benefits of the solar power system more broadly with the Westchester community, Continental structured the project as a “community solar” project, a centrally located solar facility that enables residential households, within a defined geographic area, to share in the energy produced from a green, sustainable source. By hosting the Continental Buchanan Community Solar project on its rooftop, Continental will help participating Westchester households, including many of its own employees, access the energy produced by the solar panels and receive credits toward their monthly electric bills.

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