Pan American Square Earns Sustainability Excellence Award
A $93.5 million Buffalo affordable housing project powered by offsite community solar has been recognized for sustainability.
Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Utilities
Pan American Square Apartments, a $93.5 million, 150-unit affordable housing development in Buffalo, New York, has received an Excellence in Sustainability recognition. The project is powered by an offsite community solar program that offsets 100% of its annual energy consumption.
Why it matters
The recognition highlights how affordable housing can be built to high efficiency and clean-energy standards while serving seniors, people experiencing homelessness, and residents needing supportive services. It also shows a vacant former rail corridor being put back into productive use.
The $93.5 million project spans 161,000 square feet across three interconnected four-story buildings with 150 affordable apartments. An offsite community solar program offsets 100% of annual energy use, though the extraction does not specify the measurement period.
The details
The all-electric development uses triple-pane high-performance windows, high-efficiency HVAC, continuous air barriers, and heat and energy recovery ventilation, and is pursuing Passive House certification as its sustainability strategy. A new half-mile-long 23-kV electrical line supports the site, which was built on a long-vacant former rail corridor.
Utilities Context
Passive House certification sets rigorous building-envelope and airtightness targets, and this project applies that standard to a 150-unit affordable development in Buffalo. Pairing it with offsite community solar shows how efficient all-electric buildings can be matched with off-site clean generation.
Residents of the 150 affordable apartments benefit from an all-electric building whose energy use is fully offset by offsite community solar. The project shows how energy-efficient affordable housing can be delivered in Buffalo without relying on on-site generation.
The takeaway
Energy efficiency and community solar can be combined to deliver affordable housing that carries little or no net energy cost, a model other Buffalo developers may study. Projects like this show that sustainability goals and affordability can be pursued together.
Further reading
For broader context on how power is supplied to communities like this one, see Buffalo Utilities.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine.
