Capstone Turbine Corp (NASDAQ:CPST) revealed Thursday that its microturbines were installed in the new 67-story One Vanderbilt office tower next to Grand Central Terminal, as New York looks to reduce carbon emissions by 40% over the next decade.
Capstone Turbine, which makes clean energy microturbines, is one of the many companies leading the charge in New York’s green energy revolution.
In a statement, the Van Nuys, California, company said that two energy-efficient Capstone C600 Signature Series microturbines were successfully hoisted onto the 56th floor of the new One Vanderbilt skyscraper.
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The low-emission microturbines will boost the skyscraper’s overall energy efficiency, while lowering carbon emissions as they light up the third tallest office building in the western hemisphere.
There is an encouraging trend of New York businesses building new high-efficiency LEED-certified green buildings.
Driving a green revolution in the Big Apple
“Developing and constructing buildings using LEED practices provides building owners a quantifiable framework for identifying and implementing cost-effective, practical, achievable and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions,” Capstone Turbine CEO Darren Jamison said in a statement.
“Microturbines are a practical and cost-effective way to help building owners reduce their CO2 emissions and lower energy costs while simultaneously solving resiliency issues from utility power outages,” he added.
The Capstone boss pointed out that this was “not some expensive unrealizable green aspiration,” but a straightforward real-world building approach to meet environmental and sustainability goals.
Capstone’s microturbines range from a 30-kilowatt, consumer-level unit up to 200-megawatts — enough to power skyscrapers.
Accelerating microturbine adoption
In New York City alone, the company’s microturbines are used in hundreds of buildings, including two units at Hudson Yards, the new One Vanderbilt tower next to Grand Central Terminal, as well as Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, Marriott International Inc and big businesses such as Fresh Direct.
“Our biggest challenge in accelerating microturbine adoption is customer education and brand awareness,” says Jim Crouse, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Capstone.
“New installations at Hudson Yards and now at the iconic One Vanderbilt will go a long way in bolstering our New York City sales and marketing efforts,” he added.
In April, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio said he wanted to reduce carbon emissions in buildings by 40% over the next decade.
Similarly, the cornerstone of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Green New Deal is to boost New York’s clean energy standard from 50% to 70% renewable electricity by 2030.
Since Capstone is an inverter-based technology, it works in concert with other inverter-based technologies like wind, solar and battery storage to form low emission sensitive microgrids.
Contact Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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