Finally, Staten Island is good for something besides a cheap booze cruise.
As part of the mayor’s PlaNYC 2.0, the Bloomberg administration is once again looking at turning the massive Fresh Kills Park into a power plant. Once the city’s largest landfill, Fresh Kills in in the process of becoming the city’s largest park, and it could go green in another way, as well.
When the mayor unveiled the latest iteration of the sustainability plan on Earth Day, one of the marquee talking points was solar panels for the park, but now the administration is also considering installing a wind farm in the park, according to the Daily News. Borough President James Molinaro has been calling for a wind farm for the past three years, and now the city is prepared to “fast track” the plan, the News reports:
The answer, [DEP Commissioner Cass] Holloway said, will come from private energy companies that will soon be invited to submit proposals to generate solar or wind power on city land – at Fresh Kills and at other sites around the city.
“Our goal is to get a solicitation out to private developers and we’re going to ask them,” Holloway said. “We’re going to let the market tell us – solar? wind? What is a carbon-neutral way to generate energy there that we think can work?”
To The Observer‘s pink eye, wind turbines might make more sense, from a recreational perspective, because they take up less space. But we’re no rocket scientists, nor energery market analysts, so who knows.
Meanwhile, the Journal reports the city is looking to partner with private companies to install solar panels on city buildings. Take that, Berkeley.
