The Greater Southern Dutchess Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a presentation by The Solar Energy Consortium February 6.

"The Solar Energy Consortium (TSEC)"

Come join us and learn about TSEC, The Solar Energy Consortium! TSEC is a not-for-profit solar research and development initiative, driven by industry, in collaboration with public, private, academic, environmental, labor and economic development partners. TSEC's goal is to make solar energy usage more pervasive in New York State by creating the market, driving the research, and attracting the industry. To date, TSEC has been awarded over $5.7 million in funding to attract and grow a solar energy industry in the Hudson Valley.

TSEC is expected to provide 300-500 jobs in its initial phase and create upwards of thousands of jobs in the region within the next several years. Statewide, TSEC has the potential to create tens of thousands of new jobs over the next decade while establishing New York as a global leader in the development of solar technology.

City University of NY (CUNY) is the most recent institute of higher learning to partner with the Consortium, joining Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Clarkson University, Binghamton University, and SUNY New Paltz.

TSEC aims to be a "significant player, if not the leader" in New York State in the rapidly growing solar energy industry.

Special Guest Speakers

Vincent Cozzolino, President, CEO of TSEC,
working to establish a new solar energy industry in NY State

and

Frank S. Falatyn, President and CEO of FALA Technologies, Chairman of TSEC

Date: Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Time: 7:30 A.M. - 9:00A.M.
Location: Fishkill Holiday Inn
Cost: $15/members $20/non members (Full breakfast included)
Registration: Please call 845-296-0001

CUNY Joins Solar Effort To Promote Research, Economic Development and Jobs
January 9th, 2008

The City University of New York has joined The Solar Energy Consortium to create a new research and economic development partnership between solar energy companies and academic institutions across the state, in order to dramatically advance the solar industry in New York.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., helped to organize the consortium, a not-for-profit organization which aims to identify the challenges facing the solar industry for New York's scientists, engineers and business researchers to collaboratively address, and to deliver turnkey, economical photovoltaic systems large and small. CUNY joins participating educational institutions including Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Clarkson University, Binghamton University and The State University of New York at New Paltz.The congressman said CUNY and the consortium, known as TSEC, will create new opportunities for solar energy products and devices that are researched and manufactured upstate, to be used and become more common in New York City.

"With a pressing need to shift away from greenhouse gas-producing forms of energy, New York City, which is a U.S. Department of Energy Solar America Initiative city, is an ideal market for the use of solar products, "Rep. Hinchey said. "By adding CUNY as a TSEC partner, we now have a direct link to New York City as we expand the consortium's reach into a critical market for solar energy products and devices. TSEC is truly becoming a statewide initiative that is drawing on the talented minds at CUNY and other universities across New York to help solar manufacturers at TSEC develop premier solar products."

"CUNY's researchers from several of our campuses will be part of the solution to creating a robust solar market in New York State," said Iris Weinshall, CUNY's vice chancellor for facilities, construction planning and design. " The goals of this consortium are just what New York needs.."

The CUNY Economic Development Corp., created to link academic research, workforce development and economic development, recently partnered with the Center for Sustainable Energy at CUNY's Bronx Community College to develop a new Sustainable Energy and Technology business incubator on the Bronx campus, said Frederick Schaffer, CUNY's senior vice chancellor for legal affairs and the economic development corporation's chairman. The incubator "will provide a springboard for businesses that will be generated as a result of today's collaboration," Schaffer said.

"The crucial role that the Center for Sustainable Energy plays is to take vision, policy, initiatives, and turn them into implementation strategies, and make them work." said Tria Case, the Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Energy. "That means supporting the advancement and commercialization of emerging technologies, training the green collar workforce, and fostering sustainable businesses with our new incubator. Through the TSEC partnership, CSE and CUNY will help create a viable path from the lab to the roof top."