IBM Tech to Help NYC Track, Analyze Solar Energy

by | Jun 8, 2012

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IBM has partnered with CUNY Ventures, a City University of New York Economic Development Corporation entity, to develop an intelligent operations platform that will help the city analyze  and understand key market indicators that can make solar system development more cost competitive.

IBM will use its Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities, which was created by the company in collaboration with cities around the world, as the backbone of an analytics system to help NYC monitor solar production and capacity through a virtual control room that will provide a dashboard view of key indicators (see photo).

The collaboration with CUNY Ventures is part of ‘Solar Market Analytics, Roadmapping and Tracking NY,’ or SMART NY  project. The Smart NY project is supported by a grant from the US Department of Energy SunShot Initiative Rooftop Challenge, a national effort to make solar energy cost competitive with other energy sources by 2020.

SMART NY has three components designed to accelerate the adoption of solar in NYC: address the soft costs associated with solar installations, develop the NYC Solar Portal and create an intelligent operations center for solar. These SMART NY projects aim to spur the largest rooftop solar market in the country and lower installation costs. CUNY and its partners plan to replicate the SMART NY model throughout the state of New York, CUNY said.

With IBM’s IOC software, CUNY Ventures will access and analyze data from the NYC Solar Portal, data systems in solar empowerment zones and the NYC Solar Map, which shows existing solar photovoltiac and solar thermal installations in the city.

Last month, IBM won a contract to develop and install smart building technology in 50 of the federal government’s most energy-consuming buildings, an initiative that will save taxpayers $15 million annually. The resulting data could help cut operating costs across the General Service Administration’s inventory of nearly 182 million square feet.

 

Photo: IBM

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