Historic Philadelphia, PA is home to a number of firsts – not the least of which was the first  shipyard to produce iron and steel vessels for the U.S. Navy. Those days are long gone, but the site of the Philadelphia Navy Yard is getting a new lease on life as the site of an exciting new urban renewal project showcasing a number of different green-energy technologies. This ongoing project is being carried out under the auspices of the GridStar Research Center at Pennsylvania State University – and is being realized by the contractors and workers of the NECA-IBEW team.

What is being created at the old Navy Yard is a huge green-energy grid. In reality, it is a massive testing facility, where different configurations of green energy and “smart grid” devices will be employed for a wide number of purposes. Because this area (larger than Philadelphia’s central downtown business district) is unregulated (in otherwords, it is not owned and controlled by any private or public utility), GridStar is free to experiment with different green-energy solutions.

Professor David Riley, who heads up GridStar out of Penn State’s Department of Architecture, points out that a practical green energy smart grid will require the integration of different technologies and tools.  He says that the project will include “…renewable energy, distributed generation, energy storage, the ability to host electric vehicles.

Because of the experimental nature of the project, GridStar is relying heavily on the skills and experience of the NECA-IBEW team. In many cases, these workers are having to come up with innovations right there at the jobsite, since many of these components are being used in situations for which they were not originally designed. One IBEW electrician says, “we had to adapt everything with our means and methods to install it  for this particular facility,” adding that “…we were able to take all our commercial and industrial skill and adapt everything for a residential setting.”

If you live in or near Philadelphia, or are planning to visit anytime soon, you should know that this project – which is one of the largest of its kind, and promises to serve as a model for others across the nation – is open to the public. For more information, visit GridStar’s home on the World Wide Web by logging on to http://gridstarcenter.org/smart-grid-experience-center.

Watch our Video on the Gridstar Project