Hilton New York Cuts Cooling Costs with Green Roof and Cogeneration System

Hilton New York has announced the completion of a new green roof system and the installation of a Cogeneration (Combined Heat & Power) System, both designed to reduce the hotel's overall carbon footprint. To help promote awareness of the hotel's sustainability efforts, beginning today all guests staying at Hilton New York will be provided with room keycards that depict an image of the new green roof.

 

The 16,000-square-foot green roof system was installed by Xero Flor America and is located on the hotel's fifth floor rooftop setback on the building's West 53rd Street side. The system represents a major investment by Hilton New York to benefit efforts in carbon capture, energy conservation, and reduction of the Urban Heat Island effect.

 

Hilton New York's green roof supports local farming industries and plays host to locally grown plants harvested from an upstate New York farm. The foliage and roots of those plants naturally absorb airborne pollutants, which in turn prevents large quantities of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. Additionally, the vegetated rooftop deflects solar radiation and reduces the thermal load, reducing the energy previously expended in cooling the property. All together, these benefits aid in the reduction of the Urban Heat Island effect - or increased temperatures in midtown Manhattan due to concentrated cityscapes and a lack of vegetation.

 

The installation of a highly-efficient, environmentally-friendly Cogeneration system also situated on the hotel's 5th floor roof setback, will provide in excess of 50 percent of the hotel's electrical power and over 40 percent of its steam consumption for heating and hot water requirements. As the largest hotel in New York City with 1,981 rooms, the Hilton New York consumes over 23 million kW hours of electricity per year. The Cogeneration system is expected to be fully operational by summer 2012.

 

Based on well-proven technology, this 1,750kW Cogeneration system uses clean and efficient natural gas to produce electricity and hot water for the hotel. The system will consist of seven 250kW energy modules manufactured by SDP Energy, Inc., a California-based leader in green and reliable on-site energy systems.

 

At 1,750kW, this will be the largest Cogeneration system to be installed at a New York City hotel. Once operational by early summer 2012, the system will reduce the Hilton New York's carbon footprint by in more than 30 percent, the Co2 reduction into the atmosphere will be over 10,000 metric tons per year equal to removing more than 6,000 mid-sized sedans from the roads.