Go Green: Solar Panels Power Public Market

Rochester's public market is a popular place for people to go to get fresh fruits and vegetables.  But now there's something else that's green about it.

 For the past few weeks, solar panels have been going up over Rochester's public market.

Mike Dertinger with Invictus electrical says, "numerous panels work together to produce and appreciable amount of power."  Dertinger and his team have been installing the panels that, in a few weeks, will power about 25% of the market's needs. 

Anne Spaulding, the Rochester Sr. Environmental Specialist says, "the panels will be generating electricity for the lighting in the market shed and in the winter shed and when the market is not operating, the electrictiy generated by the panels will actually go back into the RG&E grid."

The panels cost about $72,000 to put up.  But all of that was covered by grants from the department of energy and NYSERDA. 

The city looked at a number of options for these solar panels, one reason they chose the market is because a lot of people come here and will be able to see them.  Spaulding says, "we have a lot of visitors to the market annually, so it's really good for people to come see solar power and how it works and can work and be effective."

 This is the city's second solar project.  Panels are also on top of the Arnett library.  The city will be monitoring both projects closely, to decide if more panels will be put up in the future.