editorial: Clean energy projects point the way to renewable energy economy for WNY

The Buffalo News

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The symbolism is inescapable: A pair of projects representing our green energy future are being built on the graveyards of our industrial past.

The newest proposal, called Steel Sun, would turn brownfields into one of the largest solar farms in New York State, according to city and project officials.

This exciting development would transform about 25 acres of the enormous former Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna into a high-tech energy producer with the installation of 13,000 solar panels. The project would be near another source of renewable energy, Steel Winds, with its 14 wind turbines on the Hamburg and Lackawanna waterfront.

Installation of the ground-mounted solar panels is expected to start by this fall, with completion by year’s end. Lackawanna officials are understandably enthusiastic about trading brownfields for greenfields. But they are hardly alone in a renewable energy endeavor.

http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/buffalo-news-editorials/clean-energy-projects-point-the-way-to-renewable-energy-economy-for-wny-20140726