Once the tallest building in the world, and still counted amongst the tallest, the Empire State Building in New York has added another feather to its cap by becoming powered completely by wind energy. The feat was announced by the Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT), which entered into a three-year contract with sustainable energy provider Green Mountain Energy. As part of the deal, the entire building will now run on renewable wind electricity.
This includes a real estate area of over 10.1 million square feet, as per a report by The Hill. The report claims that the switch to renewable wind energy will cut back carbon dioxide emissions by about 450 million pounds which is equivalent to “every New York State household turning off all of their lights for an entire month.”
As per the report, multiple renewable energy providers vied to win the contract. Out of all the interested parties, ESRT decided to go with Green Mountain Energy due to its “flexible rate structure”.
The decision to make The Empire State Building more energy-efficient and environment-friendly is not new and hasn’t been taken all of a sudden. A decade before the ESRT entered into a contract with Green Mountain, the skyscraper in New York underwent some architectural changes that helped reduce energy usage by about 40%, adds the report.