MONROE: School Solar Panels Demonstrate Sun’s Potential— Starting this fall, the 2,300 students at Monroe-Woodbury High School in Central Valley will observe firsthand how the sun can generate electricity cleanly and quietly. A NYPA-installed, six-kilowatt rooftop photovoltaic system will provide about 8,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity to the school each year, enough to power two average homes. Students will monitor the system on classroom computers, tracking data from a rooftop station that records wind speed, temperature and amount of sunlight. They will see real-time generation figures, cumulative totals and weather data. The installation was financed by a $75,000 grant from the Petroleum Overcharge Restitution Fund. It follows earlier NYPA energy-efficiency demonstration projects in partnership with Monroe-Woodbury, including a 65-passenger electric school bus and two electric utility vehicles for the high school maintenance crew.

BUFFALO: Energy Expo to Benefit Niagara Region– The Power Authority will team up with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the New York State Public Service Commission, the New York State Consumer Protection Board and National Grid to bring Western New York residents the latest information on how to prepare their homes and businesses to conserve energy and cut costs. The Energy Expo will be held Saturday, Nov. 5, at the Dr. Charles R. Drew Magnet School, adjacent to The Buffalo Museum of Science. Doors will open at 10 a.m. to the admission-free event. Dozens of vendors and energy conservation experts will provide tips on services and products ranging from energy-saving lighting and appliances to more efficient methods of insulating, heating and weatherizing. Information will be available about energy audits for houses, apartment units and small businesses, as well as low-cost financing for major energy-saving improvements. This is the second Energy Expo NYPA has organized—the first was in Saranac Lake—and others are being planned throughout the state.

LEWISTON: NYPA to Fund $12 Million in Habitat Projects— As part of the relicensing process for its Niagara Power Project, NYPA has announced plans to fund $12 million in Habitat Improvement Projects (HIPs) in Erie County. The projects are designed to address conditions resulting from fluctuating water levels in the Niagara River, which are affected by a variety of factors on both sides of the international boundary including precipitation, power generation and treaty requirements between the United States and Canada. NYPA’s plans call for eight HIPs along the upper Niagara River corridor designed to restore fish and wildlife areas. The Power Authority also plans to establish a $16.2 million fund for future HIPs in the Niagara River basin as part of its power project relicensing. Additional annual payments over the 50-year term of the new license totaling $200 million would benefit the Niagara River Greenway initiative. The Power Authority submitted a relicensing application for its Niagara project to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in August; the project’s current license will expire in August 2007.

LEWISTON: New NYPA Web Page Explains Relicensing Issues— The Power Authority has added a page to its Internet Website to explain issues related to the relicensing of NYPA’s Niagara Power Project. “With this new page, there’s now a very accessible way to get informed and get answers to the many facets of the Niagara relicensing,” said Timothy Carey, NYPA chief operating officer. Among the sections available are “Facts vs. Fiction on Niagara Relicensing Issues,” “Power Authority Benefits to Western New York,” “What Others Are Saying” and “Got Questions? Contact Us!” The Niagara Relicensing Issues Web page, which will be updated periodically, can be accessed at http://www.nypa.gov/about/niagarafacts/niagarafacts.htm. It can also be accessed by going to www.nypa.gov and clicking on the Niagara relicensing link.

NEW YORK CITY: Brooklyn Board Gets ‘Clean’ Vehicle— The latest to join NYPA’s growing list of clean transportation vehicle users is Brooklyn’s Community Board One, which serves the Greenpoint, Bushwick and Williamsburg sections of the borough. Williamsburg is the site of one of the small, clean power plants the Power Authority installed at six New York City sites to assure reliable power service. NYPA recently provided Board One’s District Manager, Gerry Esposito, with the keys to a new hybrid-electric vehicle for use by the board in its outreach and advocacy on behalf of the community. To date, the Power Authority has helped to put into service more than 700 electric-drive vehicles throughout the state for use by NYPA customers and in its own fleet. These include fleet vehicles, hybrid-electric transit buses, all-electric school buses, station/commuter cars, electric delivery trucks, and electric low-speed vehicles, all designed to reduce harmful emissions and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

NEW YORK CITY: Power Authority Supports Astoria Pedal Power-Spectators from all over Queens joined Power Authority representatives, local elected officials and community leaders to cheer some 300 tots to pre-teens who pedaled as fast as they could at the 25th Annual Astoria Civic Association Bike Race for kids on Oct. 16 at Astoria Park. Through NYPA’s support, 16 individual races in all took place -- eight categories for boys and eight for girls – starting with the Lollipop Division for 4-year-olds and younger pedaling 50 yards, followed by the Toddlers, School Boys & Girls, Grasshoppers, Peewees, Mites, Midgets, and topping off with the Intermediate Division for 11-year-olds going a distance of a half-mile.While trophies were given to the first five to reach the finish line in each race, all children who took to their bikes went home a winner, receiving a medal and sporting a tee shirt with the Power Authority’s logo.

HERE AND THERE: Halloween Parties to be Screamin’ Success— Look for ghosts and goblins and things that go bump in the night as the visitors center at NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project in Schoharie County plays host to a “S’cary Halloween” party on Saturday, Oct. 29, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. No need to call out local Ghostbusters just yet, though, because this year’s party promises to have more treats than tricks, with many games and prizes and costume parade categories to show off the most ghoulish amongst us…along with the cutest, the prettiest, the funniest, the silliest and, of course, the most original. Youngsters will go home big winners if they pick a lucky pumpkin, guess the correct number of candy-corn in a jug, or can stand to look at the “gooey” orbs in the Ol’ Eyeball Jar long enough to give a count on how many are lookin’ back. And on the same date, the visitors center at the Niagara Power Project in Lewiston will hold a Halloween mask-making event and costume contest from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In the Community: The Niagara Power Project visitors’ center, Lewiston, was one of the participating sites in the Doors Open Niagara event on Oct. 15-16 that featured architectural and historical sites in Western New York and Southern Ontario. The center's attractions include a seven-foot-high mural by Thomas Hart Benton depicting Father Louis Hennepin's visit to Niagara Falls during the 17th century…Power Authority staff displayed an exhibit on NYPA’s role in Western New York at the Governor's Small Cities 2005 Annual Conference, Niagara Falls Conference Center, Oct. 11…NYPA was a sponsor of the Niagara International Kite Festival, Lewiston, Oct. 8-9.