ROCKEFELLER CENTER: GREEN LIGHTS, NEW ENERGY

Tis the season…

Mayor Bloomberg and Jerry I. Speyer Announce First-Ever Green Rockefeller Center Christmas Treen
November 20, 2007 (PR Web via Yahoo News)

WHO
NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Tishman Speyer Chairman/CEO Jerry I. Speyer, Tishman Speyer Managing Director Tom Madden

The new light in the east. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
LED lights on New York City’s Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza, a new solar array on the building and a planned “Green Roof” for Radio City add up to a New Energy holiday for the Big Apple. Next year, a new super efficient ice-making and storage plant powered by purchased wind energy will make the midtown complex still cooler.

WHEN
New lights for the traditional Rockefeller Center Christmas tree this year. Solar panels for
“30 Rock” now installed, expected to be especially valuable in hot summer months. Green Roof at Radio City to be completed 2008.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree will have New Energy this year. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall, midtown Manhattan, the heart of the Big Apple.

WHY
- The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is visited by 500,000 daily.
- The tree’s 30,000 LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights will reduce electricity use from 3,510 kilowatt hours to 1,297 kilowatt hours per day, daily saving the amount of power used by a family in a month.
- Tied to the Rockefeller Center grid, the 363 GE solar panel array on the roof of 45 Rockefeller Plaza, designed by altPower, will produce 70 kilowatts and generate more electricity each the year than the holiday lights consume.
- The 18,000 square foot green roof on Radio City Music Hall will have a cooling effect on midtown and use desert planting to absorb greenhouse gases, provide habitat for mi8grating birds and minimize wastewater, keeping 566,000 gallons of water from the NYC wastewater/stormwater system.
- The new ice making and storage plant: 47 11-ft tall water tanks, to cool the complex and cut energy use. Ice is created overnight, when energy demand is low. During business hours, water for air conditioning in the building is sent through the ice and cooled, reducing the amount of power neded for cooling. It will be run with power purchased from wind energy installations.

Home of the Rockettes. The shows always have legs. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Bloomberg: “The tree at Rockefeller Center is one of New York City’s most beloved and iconic landmarks, and with the environmental steps that Tishman Speyer has implemented this year, the 500,000 New Yorkers and tourists that visit the tree each day can dream of a ‘green’ Christmas…When we developed PlaNYC, we hoped that public leadership would inspire private-sector creativity and investment in a greener, greater New York, and I want to commend Jerry and Rob Speyer for stepping up and meeting that challenge.”
- Speyer: “The green initiatives we are putting in place make Rockefeller Center a leader for environmental innovation…We have here the largest private solar roof in Manhattan, which will help conserve energy, eliminate carbon dioxide, and power the 30,000 LED lights on our iconic Christmas tree. These environmental investments reflect our sense of responsibility as protectors of our local landscape, as corporate citizens of our great city, and as partners in a global community. Mayor Bloomberg has made environmental responsibility a cornerstone of his administration and we are proud to have him with us today.”