Onyx Triples Manhattan’s Solar Generation Capacity

StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village is an 80-acre private multifamily residential complex with 110 unique building addresses on the east side of Manhattan. StuyTown is leading the way to clean energy as one of the largest broad-scale, privately funded solar projects in the city. Building a solar power production site of this scale comes with unique logistical challenges.

As the largest rental community in the country, StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village represents a unique opportunity that requires careful oversight. Having experience in large-scale projects, Onyx was able to effectively coordinate approvals throughout the process to keep the project on time and on budget.

From the outset, we worked to align our project goals with the community’s goals and the long term objectives of StuyTown management and ownership.

StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village have been a staple community of New York City for over 70 years. As such, it was important to Onyx and our partners that we preserve StuyTown’s unique character while still making the environment a priority. At every step of the process, we sought to maintain partnership with the city and the community throughout the yearlong installation. We kept our residents' comfort in mind throughout each stage of the project, ensuring that construction work and timing was as least disruptive as possible. In fact, Helen Steinberg, president of the StuyTown Tenants Association, stated at the project’s completion that she and her community were only aware of the project’s occurrence due to the sightings of cranes and work crews during construction.

Rick Hayduk, CEO of StuyTown Property Services (SPS), the complex’s property management company, expressed SPS’ commitment to the StuyTown community:

“We made sure to solicit feedback from the residents. We quickly learned of the strong connection between the community’s green space and the residents’ commitment to the environment. This solar project is yet another initiative executed to reduce overall GHG emissions for the betterment of our city.”

This project took advantage of limited empty space by building solar panels on StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village’s 56 buildings’ roofs, totaling around 22 acres. Using this rooftop strategy, Onyx maximized StuyTown’s renewable energy outputs in the least amount of space possible. The rooftops also ensure a low visual impact, as the panels aren’t visible from the ground and don’t impact the integrity of the roofs.

As developer of the project, Onyx performed turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction work. As with all projects Onyx undertakes, we had our teams physically on-site to manage and oversee the entire process, from initial site walks and design to final energization and operation.

Onyx completed the StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village rooftop solar project in 2019. Even before full installation, the 9,671 solar panels installed on the rooftops were already generating electricity on site. Today, the solar power from StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village provides enough solar to power more than 1,100 homes. That’s the climate-impact equivalent of removing around 12,000 cars from the road, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 62,472 tons.

As a direct result of Onyx’s efforts, StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village became the first multi-family communities in New York state to be awarded LEED Platinum certification, the highest level of green building certification.

As a direct result of Onyx’s efforts, StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village became the first multi-family communities in New York state to be awarded LEED Platinum certification, the highest level of green building certification.

The StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village project also benefits New York City as a whole. All energy generated by the StuyTown panels is collected and distributed in the power grid by the local utility, Consolidated Edison (Con Edison). This extra solar energy will help reduce outages by taking pressure off the grid when demand for electricity is peaking on hot summer days.‍