The sun has many uses, from giving us cool-looking cancer spots to frying those pesky ants beneath our magnifying glasses (plus Solar Hits!) But what if we harnessed it to give your ConEd bill a giant, phototropic finger? A solar map of New York City released today by CUNY reveals that 66 percent of the city's rooftops could be used to harness solar power, generating enough energy to fulfill half of the city's electricity needs at peak periods. Yes, but will it be enough to keep the juice flowing to the dozens of spaceheaters powering our illicit beef jerky drying operation (and those other LED lamps in the basement that are just there for decoration)?
CUNY's nifty, searchable map works by utilizing "a computer model that calculates the incoming direct and diffuse solar radiation for every square meter of the city." Just type in your building's address and the map will tell you how much electricity your building could be generating, the amount of time it will take for the building to recoup the cost of installing the solar panels, and the equivalent amount of trees planted (15,147 for us!) by circumventing coal-powered electricity. Currently, ConEd's procedure for building owners to set up solar power is a bureaucratic nightmare worthy of Franz Kafka [pdf], but the utility says it's working on a website to make it easier for buildings to install solar panels.
