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‘Tis the season to be jolly, and if you happen to be in New York, green! This year New York’s finest Christmas landmark is going green in the spirit of the Christmas season. For the first time in its history, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, will be getting a new set of energy efficient LED Christmas lights ^[5] that will be fully powered by solar panels ^[6].

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, which attracts over 500,000 visitors during the holiday period, will receive over 30,000 LED lights ^[5] instead of the standard holiday lights that it normally had. This switch from tungsten Christmas lights to LED Christmas lights ^[5] will have the result of reducing the energy consumption by almost sixty percent. Not only that, but Tishman Speyer, the organizers of the event, have come up with an environmental management plan to reduce the impact of this operation and restore the land from where this tree came from.

The power for the tree’s Christmas lights ^[5] comes from a new solar power station that is being installed on top of the roof of 45 Rockefeller Plaza. The 363 General Electric Solar panels will be fed back into the building to help reduce the peak energy demand from the grid.

It isn’t the only green initiative announced yesterday. Tishman Speyers also owns the iconic Radio City Music Hall building, and have just announced the installation of an 18,000 square foot green roof on top of that building. The aim is to reduce the overflow of wastewater going into the stormwater system in New York and will have the added benefit of reducing the energy consumption of the building.

Oh, and as for the tree? Once the holiday period is over, it will be transformed into lumber to be used by Habitat for Humanity.

+ Mayor Bloomberg Announces First Ever ‘Green’ Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree ^[6]

+ LED Christmas Lights ^[5]