Related Links: Bright Outlook for New Jersey Solar Energy The U.S. photovoltaic industry is expected to hit a milestone this year by surpassing the 1-GW mark, or generating enough electricity from the sun to power more than 200,000 homes. While California remains firmly in the lead as the nation’s largest solar power generator, the Northeast region is catching up and accounts for much of the milestone thanks to aggressive business and homeowner incentive programs, said speakers at the PV Power-Generation Mid-West & East conference, held in New York City on Nov. 8-9.“The Northeast is the new California market,” Shaun Chapman,
EPA and the Dept. of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced plans last week (Nov. 4) to jointly evaluate the feasibility of developing biomass, geothermal, solar or wind energy production on 26 Superfund brownfield and former landfill or mining sites. The feasibility study, part of EPA's RE-Powering America's Land initiative, calls for EPA to provide about $1 million in technical assistance to the sites, Lura Matthews, RE-Powering America's Land project lead, told attendees at the PV Power Generation Mid-West & East conference, held this week in Manhattan. The study aims to determine the best technology for each site; the
The failure of a nut connecting a fuel injector to a fuel pump at Manhattan’s North River Wastewater Treatment Plant is one of the most likely initial causes of the four-alarm fire that shuttered the plant for days last July, according to a Dept. of Environmental Protection report released yesterday. However, the initial cause of the blaze, which caused millions of gallons of raw sewage to spill from the plant into the Hudson River, cannot be determined with absolute certainty because the fire damaged or destroyed much of the equipment involved, DEP says. The nut may have failed because it
Luxury retailer Coach, Inc. will become the first tenant in a tower that developers Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group, both of New York, plan to build on Midtown Manhattan’s West Side. Coach will occupy more than 600,000 square feet, or more than one-third of the initial tower of the Eastern Rail Yards, part of the 26-acre, mixed-use Hudson Yards site that the city hopes to develop. The 1.7-million-sq-ft, 51-story tower will generate more than 20,000 construction jobs, according to NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s office. When completed in 2015, the tower will be the largest commercial building in New York
The New York construction market next year is likely to mirror that of the national market, which McGraw-Hill Construction recently forecast as flat at about $412 billion in starts. McGraw-Hill Construction, the parent company of ENR New York, expects 2011 total starts to hit $410 billion, a 4% drop over 2010. The company cites slow economic growth, diminished federal and state funding, and "pervasive uncertainty." Next year "the top-line numbers are not expected to show much change, but there will be variation within the major construction sectors, with some gains predicted for housing and commercial building, assuming the U.S. economy
Consultancy Turner & Townsend, London, continues its geographic expansion with the acquisition of Ferzan Robbins & Associates, a N.Y.-based project management and services firm that will be merged with Turner & Townsend’s New York office. Terms were not disclosed. Turner & Townsend says the deal is part of its previously announced strategy to boost its U.S. presence and will provide the critical mass needed to support U.S. clients. Ferzan Robbins & Associates provides “a team with deep experience, an outstanding reputation, and a client list boasting many Fortune 500 companies across a wide range of sectors including banking, media/communications and
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has recommended Patrick J. Foye to become executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and has called for consolidation of the Moynihan Station Development Corp. and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. operations into PANYNJ. Foye currently serves as the governor’s deputy secretary of economic development and oversees the Empire State Development Corp. There is no fiscal impact to PANYNJ as a result of these actions, he says. “Too many different agencies doing the same or closely related work makes little sense,” Gov. Cuomo said in a statement. “The Port Authority is
Project labor agreements that incorporate community workforce agreements are on the rise nationwide and are becoming more comprehensive than they were prior to 2004, according to a new study by Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations School. CWAs, which typically include training and apprenticeships, help in job creation and career development, particularly for disadvantaged communities, says Kimberly Freeman Brown, executive director of the Washington-based American Rights at Work, a pro-union advocacy group that commissioned the study. This is an especially welcome development at a time when frustration over the nation's high unemployment rate and lack of job creation mounts as
Following in the well-trod path of Match.com and other online dating services, the American Institute of Architects thinks it has found a way to attract investors to the thousands of industry projects put on hold—send the potential suitors to cyberspace for a database of the good-lookers. That is, the AIA is compiling a list of stalled projects nationwide that “make sense” to move forward but for lack of financing, and a list of the types of projects that financial entities specialize in. “It’s the Match.com for projects,” says Clark Manus, AIA president. Clark believes AIA’s initiative will help
The New Jersey construction industry got an early Christmas present late last month: state funding for a program aimed at helping military veterans transition out of active duty into the building and construction trades. The $195,000 grant will be available under the state's Dept. of Labor and Workforce Development agency in partnership with the New Jersey Building and Construction Trades Council's chapter of the national Helmets to Hardhats program. The initiative will provide many veterans with jobs in the building trades, which has posted employment gains in six of the past seven months, the state says. But while industry executives