Green Makeover for Rockefeller Center Tree

New energy efficient LEDs will replace old fashioned bulbs on the holiday tree, reducing the display's electricity consumption from 3,510 to 1,297 kilowatt hours per day. The daily savings is equal to the amount of electricity consumed by a typical 2,000-square-foot house in a month. "Now, New Yorkers will see an example of green leadership which may inspire them to make greener choices in their own lives," Bloomberg said last Tuesday. The owners of Rockefeller Center, Tishman Speyer, also showed off a new solar energy array that will generate electricity on the roof of one of the complex's buildings, the largest privately owned solar roof in Manhattan. The Rockefeller Center tradition was started in 1931, when construction workers building the first part of the office building complex erected a 20-foot Balsam fir amid the site's mud and rubble. After the tree is taken down in January, it will be cut into lumber to be used in houses built by Habitat for Humanity.