CooperatorNews New York September 2021

September 2021
COOPERATORNEWS.COM
Frank van Mierlo, CEO of 1366 Technologies Inc., a company based
in Bedford, Massachusetts, that is at the forefront of solar technology
development and production. In a recent podcast called “Th e Science
of Solar,” Mierlo states that the fi rst solar technology was developed in
1954 by Bell Labs. At that time, a solar panel’s cost per kilowatt-hour
was about $10. Today, he says, it’s about 4¢ to 5¢.
According to Mierlo, the material of a solar panel acts as a semi-
conductor, which processes electricity in a way that wastes a certain
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Th e reality of climate change is upon us.
Weather patterns have changed, and sea-
sons have been altered. We experience more
intense heat, more frequent, destructive
storms, wide-ranging wildfi res, and more
destructive cold. Tornadoes—the spawn of
confl icting hot and cold air masses—touch
down in places they were once almost un-
heard of. What was scientifi c prognostica-
tion only a few years ago has become reality.
It’s also a reality that most of the structures
that house our homes—particularly high-
rise multifamily buildings—were not de-
signed for these types of changing climate
events. While that’s a chilling thought, to-
day’s communities have no choice but to
deal with that reality, as well as plan for
what may be ahead.
The New Reality
Perhaps the two most pressing and dra-
matic ramifi cations of climate change fac-
ing our communities today are the rise in
sea level, and the increasing intensity and
frequency of severe storms. More concern-
ingly, these two events overlap, causing even
greater peril, which is particularly severe for
communities built along our coasts.
“Th e biggest issue is along our water-
fronts,” says Kevin Keating, an architect with
Selldorf Architects, a global architectural
fi rm based in New York. “For communities
In the beginning … there was light. And all this time later, we are fi nally harnessing light’s
energy to power our cities, our buildings, and our everyday devices—mostly because all of the
energy sources we’ve used until now emit incalculable amounts of carbon and other dangerous
particles into the atmosphere, causing what is now widely understood to be a global climate
catastrophe.
While the light was good, it was also expensive. Capturing energy from the sun requires
acres and acres of enormous photovoltaic panels. Storage and distribution of that energy re-
quires yet another set of costly infrastructure. And scaling and applying this technology to an
off -the-grid cabin in the woods is much diff erent from getting it to power an 80-story high-rise
in a large city.
But over the last few decades—and particularly over the last few years, as we’ve reached
our climate reckoning in the wake of disasters of near-biblical proportions—the technology
and components for making and providing non-fossil-burning power are becoming cheaper,
smarter, and more widely available.
The Solar Scale
Experts in the fi eld of clean energy contend that the last 20 years have seen a huge reduc-
tion in the cost of manufacturing and installing photovoltaic modules. One of these experts is
Between the tragedy of the Surfside
condominium collapse in Florida and
the subsequent placement of the associa-
tion in receivership, as well as the flurry
of recent press around popstar Britney
Spears’s yearslong struggle against her
own financial and legal conservatorship
situation, many may be confused—or
just curious—about what exactly those
terms mean, and how both an entity like
a condo association and a private indi-
vidual can be in the same legal ballpark.
While it’s rare for an entire multifamily
community to be placed in receivership,
conservatorships for individual residents
are much more common—so it’s helpful
for both boards and residents to have a
basic understanding of both processes,
how they come about, and how they may
change with a given set of circumstances.
Fundamentally, when a property or
individual finds itself or themselves in
a situation that threatens the continued
economic viability of the asset or estate,
our laws provide a level of supervised
assistance from qualified third parties
to help restore and preserve that viabil-
ity. In the case of real property, that as-
sistance is known as receivership. In the
case of an individual, it is known as con-
servatorship or guardianship. In both
cases, the goal is to stabilize and preserve
the value of the real property and/or the
personal estate.
Receivership
William D. McCracken, a partner with
Manhattan-based law firm Ganfer Shore
Leeds & Zauderer, defines receivership
as follows: “A receiver, most broadly, is
an officer of the court appointed to step
into the shoes of an owner or other in-
terested party. They are appointed for
various reasons, but usually it’s when the
New Green Tech for the
Multifamily Sector
Shiny, Tiny…& Brainy
BY DARCEY GERSTEIN
Climate Change
& Residential
Communities
A New Reality Raises
New Challenges
BY A. J. SIDRANSKY
Receiverships &
Conservatorships 101
Understanding a
Powerful Legal Tool
BY A. J. SIDRANSKY
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