New York Metropolis owns almost 15,000 parcels overlaying roughly 14% of the 5 boroughs, however as of 2025, solely about 31 megawatts of solar energy had been put in throughout 187 city-owned services, in response to a brand new report from Metropolis Comptroller Mark Levine.
Levine is asking on the town to make higher use of that sprawling actual property portfolio by putting in photo voltaic panels and battery storage on extra rooftops, parking tons, fleet depots and different public properties.
Reasonably than growing initiatives one web site at a time, the report requires the town to bundle them right into a coordinated portfolio. Levine’s workplace argues that the strategy may entice long-term buyers, decrease financing and procurement prices, help electric-vehicle charging, and ease grid strain throughout peak demand, comparable to summer season warmth waves.
“The July heat wave underscored the urgency of strengthening New York City’s energy resilience,” Levine mentioned in a press release. “Localized outages and emergency conservation measures showed why every neighborhood needs more reliable, distributed sources of power.”
The report highlights 4 properties for example the chances: the parking zone subsequent to Queens Borough Corridor, the Orchard Seashore parking area within the Bronx, the Staten Island Teleport campus and the MTA’s East New York Bus Depot.
Their rooftops and parking areas cowl greater than 3 million sq. toes, or about 69 acres — almost 5 occasions the footprint of a 12-megawatt photo voltaic cover being developed at Kennedy Airport’s long-term parking zone.
The 4 websites are conceptual examples and haven’t undergone technical feasibility research. The report doesn’t estimate how a lot energy they may produce, what building would value, or how lengthy improvement would take.
At Queens Borough Corridor, the report factors to a 302-space municipal parking zone overlaying about 122,360 sq. toes, or almost three acres. A photo voltaic cover may generate electrical energy with out eliminating parking, whereas batteries may retailer energy throughout the day and launch it later, when electrical energy use tends to peak.
The ability might be used at Borough Corridor or assist ease strain on the encompassing grid. A community-solar association may additionally present credit to close by residents, inexpensive housing developments or nonprofit teams, although that will require additional authorized, monetary and procurement assessment.
The Orchard Seashore parking area is far bigger, with greater than 5,600 areas unfold throughout greater than 1.8 million sq. toes. Photo voltaic canopies and battery storage over even a part of the lot may generate electrical energy and lease income, scale back peak demand and supply resilience advantages throughout emergencies, the report says.
On Staten Island, the report factors to the roughly 81-acre Teleport campus, which is being transferred from the Port Authority to the town’s Financial Growth Company. The property has {an electrical} substation, data-center infrastructure, floor parking and about 31 undeveloped acres that would make it appropriate for a bigger solar-and-storage challenge.
The East New York Bus Depot belongs to the MTA somewhat than a metropolis company, however Levine included it for example of how publicly managed transportation properties may double as power infrastructure because the MTA electrifies its fleet.
A Nationwide Renewable Power Laboratory examine for the MTA discovered that pairing electric-bus charging with correctly sized photo voltaic and storage programs may lower utility prices by greater than 35% and save about $15 million at a depot over 20 years, in response to the comptroller’s report.
New York Metropolis Comptroller Mark Levine enters the Council chambers earlier than testifying on the Metropolis Council’s preliminary finances listening to on Wednesday, March 11Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
NYC’s energy grid below rising pressure
Levine launched the report after a punishing stretch of warmth and storms that introduced localized outages, voltage reductions and emergency calls to preserve electrical energy.
Con Edison reported 80,000 outages throughout the 5 boroughs between July 2 and July 3, in response to Levine’s workplace. The determine rose to 173,700 between July 2 and July 5 when Westchester County was included.
The pressure included focused service cuts and voltage reductions meant to stop wider failures. Con Edison mentioned it briefly lower energy to just about 10,000 prospects in southwest Queens on July 3 and lowered voltage to just about 400,000 prospects in Brooklyn and Queens as crews made repairs. One other roughly 148,000 prospects confronted a voltage discount two days later.
Demand is anticipated to maintain rising as buildings, automobiles and municipal fleets shift away from fossil fuels. The New York Impartial System Operator initiatives annual electrical energy use within the metropolis may improve by 25% to 30% by 2050, from roughly 50,000 gigawatt-hours right now to just about 65,000.
Photo voltaic nonetheless provides solely about 1% to 1.5% of the town’s electrical energy. New York Metropolis has about 641.5 megawatts of put in photo voltaic capability total, roughly 64% of its 2030 goal, whereas 84 battery-storage services whole about 115 megawatts.
Batteries don’t generate electrical energy. They cost when energy is out there and discharge when demand climbs, comparable to on sizzling afternoons when air conditioners are operating throughout the town.
Pairing them with photo voltaic panels on public property may scale back peak demand, lower reliance on costly fossil-fuel “peaker” vegetation and delay some pricey upgrades to substations and different infrastructure, in response to Levine’s report.
The report additionally comes because the Champlain Hudson Energy Categorical stays offline. The $6 billion transmission line entered business operation in Might and was constructed to hold Canadian hydropower into the town’s grid in Astoria, Queens.
The 1,250-megawatt line can provide as a lot as 20% of New York Metropolis’s electrical energy. It’s anticipated to stay out of service by means of the top of July due to a cable downside, Reuters reported.
NYISO mentioned it was not relying on the road to fulfill demand this summer season whilst statewide energy reserves remained “extremely tight.” Reuters additionally reported that the town relied extra closely on fossil-fuel mills as temperatures neared 100 levels.
FILE – A Con Edison employee toiling in a manhole.Picture by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP by way of Getty Photos
A July 14 NYISO evaluation recognized a 189-megawatt New York Metropolis energy deficiency throughout the 2026 summer season peak with out the hydropower line having demonstrated its deliberate capability. That calculation assumed fossil-fuel mills on the Gowanus and Narrows barges would stay in service.
NYISO mentioned grid operators would doubtless have to make use of emergency measures extra usually till different deliberate initiatives turn into accessible, together with public conservation appeals, demand-response applications, voltage reductions, emergency energy purchases and cuts to working reserves.
The grid operator additionally discovered that the early July warmth wave introduced roughly two to a few occasions as many generator outages in New York Metropolis and the Decrease Hudson Valley as planners usually account for, together with a number of transmission outages. NYISO mentioned the situations pushed the grid “well beyond established planning criteria and practices.”
Levine’s report describes the Champlain Hudson line and the forthcoming Empire Wind offshore challenge as important, however warns that enormous transmission initiatives alone can not clear up each native bottleneck or reliability downside.
Battery initiatives face neighborhood resistance
Battery power storage programs, referred to as BESS, have turn into contentious in a number of components of the town, with proposed services drawing protests in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island over fireplace dangers, their proximity to properties and colleges, noise and a scarcity of group enter.
One ongoing combat is in Center Village, Queens, the place NineDot Power is pursuing a facility throughout from PS/IS 128 and close to properties, a daycare middle and an animal hospital.
Greater than 100 residents, educators, enterprise house owners and group leaders rallied in opposition to the challenge in June, calling for it to be moved to a much less residential space. The Division of Buildings mentioned on the time that the appliance remained below assessment, though basis work had been accepted and permitted.
NineDot says the location would comprise 4 Tesla Megapacks and meet FDNY necessities, together with around-the-clock monitoring, heat-sensing cameras, fire-rated partitions and programs designed to close down overheating cells. The corporate additionally says not one of the greater than 30 BESS services working within the metropolis has skilled a fire-safety incident.
FDNY officers have strongly defended the town’s oversight. At a Metropolis Council listening to final 12 months, Bureau of Fireplace Prevention Chief Thomas Currao known as the division’s assessment system “the benchmark for the safety of urban energy storage systems,” pointing to full-scale fireplace testing, plan opinions and inspections.
Officers mentioned industrial storage programs are extremely engineered and essentially completely different from the uncertified batteries generally related to e-bike fires.
However hazardous-materials chief Joseph Loftus additionally acknowledged that firefighters could comprise a battery-storage fireplace and permit it to burn somewhat than instantly extinguish it as a result of trapped gases may create an explosion danger.
Levine’s report equally credit the town and the FDNY with growing one of many nation’s most rigorous battery-storage security frameworks. Nevertheless it argues that prolonged opinions, altering technical necessities and restricted transparency can sluggish initiatives and drive up prices, and requires extra predictable allowing with out weakening security requirements.
BESS: This technique is used to retailer renewable power after which use it when wanted. Picture by Getty Photos
Scaling up current efforts
The town has already begun pursuing initiatives alongside these strains championed by the comptroller.
The Division of Environmental Safety is advancing a 10-megawatt photo voltaic set up paired with 10 megawatts of battery storage at its Wards Island wastewater remedy facility. The Division of Citywide Administrative Providers has put in a photo voltaic cover at Rikers Island that helps electric-vehicle charging and sends energy to the grid.
The town’s PowerUp NYC plan recognized about 400 megawatts of potential battery-storage capability on city-owned parking tons and vacant land, with roughly 300 megawatts already passing an preliminary company assessment, in response to the report.
Nonetheless, Levine desires the town to maneuver past these remoted initiatives and deal with a number of properties as one coordinated portfolio. The report requires planning throughout metropolis companies and Con Edison and argues that bundling initiatives may entice personal funding.
His report additionally backs Metropolis Council laws that will direct the FDNY to determine an expedited allowing course of for sure small and medium-sized residential battery programs whereas sustaining security requirements.
A separate proposal would require the town to determine municipal properties appropriate for battery storage and set deployment targets for city-owned tons.
Interconnection poses one other impediment. The report says Con Edison has paused new large-scale battery initiatives throughout 85% of its territory following a surge in requests, whereas proscribing massive connections and shifting consideration towards smaller programs positioned behind prospects’ meters.
Levine can also be calling on the town to pursue accessible state and federal incentives and create a central “Direct Pay Dashboard” to trace eligible initiatives and maximize federal reimbursements throughout companies.
Eligible battery-storage initiatives can usually obtain tax credit price as much as 30% of their prices by means of direct funds to municipalities, with further incentives accessible for some initiatives, in response to the report.
The proposal doesn’t include a price ticket or building timeline. However an evaluation cited within the report estimated that increasing photo voltaic and storage may ship almost $481 million in annual averted power prices downstate by 2035, with common annual financial savings of about $46 for residential prospects – together with those that don’t personal photo voltaic panels or batteries.
