Town of Hempstead Announces Green Team Campaign

Mark Polstein's newly "green" Bellmore home - now adorned with solar panels - was the scene of a press conference held Friday by the Town of Hempstead to announce their Green Team campaign.

"Kermit the Frog may have said that it isn't easy being green," quipped Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray. "But here in the Town of Hempstead, we can really make it as easy as possible for our residents to become solar pioneers and join our Green Team."

Green Team is a partnership formed by the Town of Hempstead with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), Renewable Energy Long Island, the Department of Energy, and others, in an attempt to educate local residents on how to lower their energy costs and reduce their carbon footprint.

Among the resources being made available to Hempstead citizens are six "green" how-to public seminars, a proposed $100 cap on the town's building permit fee for home solar panel installation starting this fall, and a light bulb exchange program, where people can swap their regular bulbs for more energy-efficient fluorescent ones.

Polstein commissioned Built Well Solar, a Bellmore-based solar energy company, to install 28 solar panels on the roof of his house to supplement his electricity needs.

"I feel solar electricity is definitely the way to go," Polstein said. "It's good for the planet, and in reducing the need for fossil fuels, it's the patriotic thing to do."

But is solar power really all it's cracked up to be? Well, you can measure the success of Polstein's endeavor by the $5 electric bill he had last month.

Dan Sabia, president of Built Well Solar Corp., explained the benefits of his company's work on Polstein's home.

"The solar panels we installed offset Mr. Polstein's electric bill by about $150-$175 a month," he said. "Payback on the system is only about five or six years. After that, you get 20 years of free electricity."

However, Polstein isn't the only one benefiting from his solar panels; his neighbors are as well in terms of reducing the strain on the utility grid during peak use (hot summer) hours. Any electricity the system produces while the sun shines over and above what he actually uses is fed back into LIPA's grid. During lower usage months, Polstein may accumulate enough excess solar energy some months to provide a nice fat credit  for cloudy days or even future higher-usage months.

"It's like LIPA's my customer now," said Polstein.

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