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Here on ETV we’ve produced and shared green energy stories in the past. Stories on combined heat and power systems, solar power, wind energy, and even one on green energy storage, which is a revolution in the industry.
Or should I say, “was” a revolution. Because what the NECA-IBEW team is now helping to pioneer is an entirely new way to think green, be green, go green and make green – as in money – for its customers, at a once-prominent but long-forgotten area of Philadelphia.
Williams J. Agate, Jr. – Senior Vice President of Navy Yard Management and Development, PIDC
“One of the largest real estate projects that the City of Philadelphia has ever embarked on, and has asked PIDC to take care of, is the redevelopment of the Philadelphia Navy Yard.”
Jeff Scarpello – Executive Director, Pennsylvania/Delaware/New Jersey Chapter of NECA
“The Navy Yard is a terrific historical site for the City of Philadelphia. Many of the ships that were used in World War II were built right here. However, it fell upon some rough times in the decades that followed, but it was really a great piece of real estate for the City of Philadelphia.”
John Daugherty – Business Manager, IBEW Local 98
“The Navy Yard has 10,000 employees right now. It is probably capable, with the subway expansion to the Navy Yard, of employing 30,000.”
Williams J. Agate, Jr. – Senior Vice President of Navy Yard Management and Development, PIDC
“At 1,200 acres, it is actually a little bit larger than our Center City, or our downtown Philadelphia. We are one of the largest, non-military, unregulated electric grids in the entire nation.
That unregulated nature of power here, combined with its physical size, makes this the ideal spot for a whole host of ‘plug and play’ components that can make what’s being called a green energy ‘sub-grid’ at the GridSTAR Center, where it’s all quarterbacked by this man, David Riley of Penn State University.
David Riley – Associate Professor, Department of Architectural Engineering, Penn State University
“The name GridSTAR is intended to reflect, obviously, that our focus is on the electric grid, but it also reflects our aspiration to help cultivate talent and actual stars – people that going to be champions for energy efficiency and renewable energy and smart grid technology.”
A modular home, amidst old Navy buildings ripe for redevelopment, may seem out of place at first glance. That is, until it’s explained a little better.
David Riley – Associate Professor, Department of Architectural Engineering, Penn State University
“A home is a great way to connect with people. They can relate to their own energy security, and what do they do with their family if the grid goes down? And what do these technologies really look like? Communities of homes, as well as commercial buildings and commercial-scale micro-grids, and utility-scale technologies, are all available here. Renewable energy, distributed generation, energy storage, the ability to host electric vehicles – it’s not one technology that will get this done, it’s a suite of technologies, and they actually interact together.”
And more than just our camera crew and you, our audience, are interested in what the research shows about this micro-grid within the Navy Yard.
David Riley – Associate Professor, Department of Architectural Engineering, Penn State University
“At the national level, we are seeing increasingly the need for places like this to support business development and the growth and understanding of how these technologies actually work, and support the growth and confidence of electrical contractors in these technologies so they can begin to recommend them and integrate them into their projects.”
And when you talk about this project specifically, with the sheer amount of different types of systems and integration, the right choice was NECA-IBEW.
David Riley – Associate Professor, Department of Architectural Engineering, Penn State University
“One of the great resources we have at our disposal here in Philadelphia is the great relationship that exists between NECA and Local 98, and the training infrastructure that exists.”
Frank Holleran – President, HB Frazier Company
“It was really great for us to get the exposure, where we are doing a little bit of everything in one spot – everyone can see it. The community can come in, the public can come in and see all of this energy saving technology we have right here.”
Scott Yaffe – Electrician, IBEW Local 98 Member
“It was a design build, we took everything that the engineer had, and we had to adapt everything with our means and methods to install it for this particular facility.”
Michael Connely – Project Manager, HB Frazier Company
“Being a modular home, a lot of the wires were just there. When the house was built, they just put it together and said, we’ll figure it down the road.”
Scott Yaffe – Electrician, IBEW Local 98 Member
“We were able to take all of our commercial and industrial skills and adapt everything for a residential setting.”
In addition to everything else, this is something you’ve likely never, ever seen before.
It’s nothing more than a highly specialized camera – which is to say that takes pictures of the atmosphere and compares them to actual performance of the solar power system. Over time, this can be used to predict how the weather effects solar energy output.
David Riley – Associate Professor, Department of Architectural Engineering, Penn State University
“Technologies change very quickly with respect to energy and energy efficiency. Learning will be constant, and there’s no greater asset to that than a sound and strong learning infrastructure. That can support the cultivation of talent and also the continuing professional development electricians, engineers, and NECA professionals.
The rebirth of the Navy Yard in Philadelphia is just beginning. This was Part One of our story – stay tuned for Part Two, which will be loaded very soon. We will explore the realized benefits of the GridSTAR Center and its research, for actual tenants at the Navy Yard.