Solar project will power WNY jobs

AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) - The New York Power Authority signed off on a multi-million dollar project to install five thousand solar panels to power a housing project on the University at Buffalo's north campus.

Solar Liberty of Williamsville will handle most of the work.

The project is expected to create about a dozen new jobs.

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It's the University at Buffalo's big "Day in the Sun." A multi-million dollar solar project will power more jobs under the sun in Buffalo.

The $7.5 million dollar solar project at U.B. is pushing a western New York company to the head of the class.

New York Power Authority Chief Executive Officer Richard Kessel said, "This will be one of the largest of it's kind, on any campus, anywhere in the United States of America, right here in Buffalo."

The New York Power Authority is going with Solar Liberty, a Williamsville-based solar power contractor, to develop the U.B. project, along with a Canadian company.

Solar Liberty Chief Executive Officer and U.B. graduate Adam Rizzo, is getting 80 percent of the money, and 100 percent of the 10 to 15 jobs the project will create, "Which can range anywhere from $35 to $50 an hour, or higher."

Solar Liberty's partner in the project is Ontario-based DeCloet Greenhouse Manufacturing.

Ben DeCloet of DeCloet Greenhouse Manufacturing said, "The similarity between greenhouses and the solar racking systems is so close, really, it is just a natural fit for it."

The project calls for placing 5,000 solar panels along a tract of land, generating more than a million watts of electricity; enough power to light up more than 700 apartments, for U.B. students to study by.

The Flint Village Apartments would be the end users of the solar project, saving U.B. as much as $100,000 dollars a year on the electric bill.

But solar power is clearly shining the light on green jobs for western New York, which has been bleeding jobs for years.

In Niagara Falls, for instance, the re-opening of Globe Specialty Metals could restore 500 new jobs for the solar power industry.

Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster said, "And again, a lot of people talk about wanting to see jobs; we are doing them. It is one thing to say you want jobs, it is another thing to actually bring them here."