In a statement released on February 21, 2019, Mayor Ravi Bhalla announced that the city of Hoboken will begin purchasing 100% clean, nonpolluting renewable electricity for all municipal facilities starting April of 2019. This includes offices and buildings used for the Hoboken local government, such as city hall.
As one of the first municipalities in New Jersey to adopt 100% renewable energy in municipal buildings, Hoboken is taking the first step towards the implementation of the Hoboken Climate Action Plan. Announced on January 29 at the first State of the City address by Mayor Bhalla, the Climate Action Plan is a green initiative that includes goals to make the entire city of Hoboken net zero by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2050. Through the implementation of initiatives like electric charging stations, building energy updates, and a community solar program, Hoboken will uphold the United Nations Paris Climate Agreement goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Aimed at reducing the dependency on fossil fuels, combating pollution, creating new jobs, and ensuring all citizens access to affordable energy solutions, the project is part of the Sierra Club’s Mayors for 100% Clean Energy campaign. With this campaign, the Sierra Club is creating a community of mayors across the nation to further educate about, and transition cities to, clean renewable energy. At this time, over 200 mayors have taken the pledge.
Affordability is a driving factor for renewable energy, since it is projected to decrease energy costs. “The city will pay less than 11 cents per kWh,”
states the City of Hoboken website, which is approximately 1 cent per kWh hour less than the price of Hoboken’s largest current energy provider, Public Service Electric and Gas Company.
Once all of Hoboken reaches 100% renewable, 72% of the energy will be renewable energy sourced from outside of the state of New Jersey and 28% will be from New Jersey. Energy will be produced in Hoboken through the use of photo-voltaic cells, but solar energy can only satisfy a fraction of the demand that is necessary to power the entire city. Therefore, outside sources such as Aggressive Energy LLC are still necessary.
Although Stevens is a major part of the Hoboken community, Stevens is currently not committing to a 100% renewable pledge. However, Bob Maffia, Stevens’ Vice President for Facilities and Campus Operations, expresses excitement and “applauds the City of Hoboken and Mayor Ravi Bhalla for making this decision.”
Stevens Facilities and Campus Operations is exploring options regarding the purchase and use of renewable energy as well as reducing energy consumption levels. There is currently an LED replacement study being performed on campus to find the most economical locations to replace the current fluorescent lights with LED lights, along with occupancy or vacancy sensors. The preliminary results of this study are scheduled to be released in the next few months.
All lights on campus will not be changed to LED due to the reasoning that many buildings on campus are under construction or are scheduled to be under renovation in the near future, but all new renovation projects will include LED lighting and occupancy sensors, which will automatically turn lights on or off based on motion sensing.
“We will continue to focus on using fewer kilowatt hours on campus,” Maffia states. Seen in the combination of initiatives such as LED replacement study and sensors that will turn off lights when not in use, Stevens is prioritizing creating habits for conserving energy and implementing energy saving techniques. Currently, Stevens does participate in sustainability initiatives such as electric cars for facilities and the use of energy efficient heating and cooling strategies.
Since January, the City of Hoboken has
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