“I was always a little grim about our use of energy — fossil fuels,” Copeland said. So the homesteaders did something unique for the 1970s. They installed 30 Sunworks solar collectors and a large windmill on the rooftop of 519 East 11th Street, which provided more than enough energy to power the building and provide hot water. That excess energy was subsequently fed back into the power grid.
Local utility Con Edison was surprised by the excess energy.
“The utility took the position that nobody should ever [feed power] to their grid,” Copeland said. Following that, a group of residents petitioned the Public Service Commission to allow cogeneration in the city and eventually won the case, defended by Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
“This was like the trigger that allowed all of us to install systems and provide electrical power to the grid,” he said.
