Take a closer look at the Javits Center solar project.
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Installing a microgrid is a powerful solution for commercial buildings
By Cemile Kavountzis, for Siemens
Siemens is making the future of large-scale venues more sustainable right now.
Convention centers are gathering places to share ideas and showcase innovative products to improve lives. However, what about the buildings themselves?
40%
Commercial buildings account for around 40% of the world’s energy use and significantly contribute to pollution.
Here’s a look at this
breath of fresh air.
Select topic to learn more
Javits Center
Microgrids provide the powerful energy solutions businesses and the planet need right now.
When one of the busiest convention centers in the world set out to prove it could be a leader for great change — and help New York state reach its ambitious sustainability targets — it needed a partner that could empower real-world impact.
Working with Siemens, a technology company and infrastructure provider, the Javits Center in New York City developed an innovative microgrid featuring the largest rooftop solar array and battery storage system in Manhattan to date.
To Microgrid Section
Renewable solar energy helps
reduce emissions and air pollution
According to the National Resources Defense Council, energy use and production from burning fossil fuels are the largest contributors to air pollution right now.
When buildings switch to renewable solar energy, it decreases the electricity generated by coal, natural gas and oil. As a result, they reduce greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide and air pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury.
Solar energy systems can make large-scale buildings healthier, safer and more efficient. If a fraction of commercial buildings in the U.S. switched to solar energy, they could prevent 30 million metric tons of carbon emissions.
To transform buildings, Siemens technology makes facilities more sustainable, adaptable and resilient for the future.
To Green Roof
Section
A mega convention center
installs a microgrid
Convention centers often operate around the clock, which presents a major challenge for sustainability. The microgrid at the Javits Center will lower energy costs, reduce their environmental impact and lessen its strain on the grid.
300
CARS ON
THE ROAD
The scale of the Javits Center
A snapshot of the microgrid
To Buildings
Section
The green roof gets
even greener
The 6.75-acre green roof at the Javits Center is one of the largest in the country and a wildlife sanctuary. The location and size of the flat roof provided the ideal space for a solar array. However, the challenge for Siemens was not disturbing this thriving urban habitat.
Wildlife on the roof
The impact adds up fast
The rooftop solar farm at the Javits Center provides 1.62 megawatts of solar energy, including 3.5 megawatts of battery storage. The microgrid developed by Siemens empowers the building to be more resilient to outages, more reliable overall and more sustainable, thanks to clean energy. It also reduces costs.
For a building the size of the Javits Center, which has a footprint of 3.3 million square feet, even a small reduction in electrical consumption can reduce its impact in big ways and provide significant savings.
Back to Solar Energy Section
Transforming buildings
is possible now
Javits Center in New York City
Solar
Energy
Mega
Microgrid
Green
Roofs
Transform
Buildings
Solar
Energy
Mega
Microgrid
Green
Roofs
Transform
Buildings
70%
BENEFIT FROM
SOLAR
900K
JOBS
CREATED
Thinking about cleaner air, their solar energy project is equivalent to removing 311 cars from the road.
Always on: Operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week
Spans six city blocks and 2.1 million square feet
Works with 40,000 companies
Hosts up to 5,000 attendees
Encompasses more than 3,500 solar panels
Produces more than 1.62 megawatts of solar energy. One megawatt can power about 1,000 homes.
Offsets more than 3.1 million pounds of carbon emissions
Could power some 173 million smartphones
More than 26 bird species
Five bat species
Thousands of honey bees
A one-acre rooftop farm
Three diesel generators allow the facility to be off-grid for up to six consecutive days
The solar project created more than 50 clean energy jobs
To help the Javits Center on its journey toward a sustainable future, Siemens designed and constructed a visionary solar array and battery.
Looking forward, other convention centers, large-scale facilities and buildings could now use technology to support cleaner air while lowering operating costs and increasing their resiliency.
SOLAR ARRAY AND BATTERY
CREATED FOR JAVITS CENTER
JARVIS CENTER
70% of U.S. businesses would benefit financially from using solar energy
30M
TONS OF CARBON EMISSIONS
=
13M
HOMES WITH
GREEN ENERGY
Reducing 30 million metric tons of carbon emissions = enough green energy for 13 million homes
Moving to green energy would create 900,000 jobs
According to the National Resources Defense Council, energy use and production from burning fossil fuels are the largest contributors to air pollution right now.
When buildings switch to renewable solar energy, it decreases the electricity generated by coal, natural gas and oil. As a result, they reduce greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide and air pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury.
Solar energy systems can make large-scale buildings healthier, safer and more efficient. If a fraction of commercial buildings in the U.S. switched to solar energy, they could prevent 30 million metric tons of carbon emissions.
CITY SCAPES WITHOUT GREEN ROOFING / RENEWABLE ENERGY
CITY SCAPES WITH GREEN ROOFING / RENEWABLE ENERGY