New York becomes the first city to adopt a target for energy storage
By Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor
New York City recently became the first city to adopt a target for energy storage.
The goal was set as part of an update to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s climate plan outlined two years ago. The plan features an increased reliance on wind and solar power and a reduction of the city’s overall greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 2005 levels by 2050.
The mayor added an energy-storage deployment target of 100 megawatt-hours of storage capacity by 2020. De Blasio’s recently expanded the city’s solar goals to 1,000 megawatts by 2030, or enough to power 250,000 households.
The storage target would also make New York more resilient by providing backup energy when the grid goes down. New Yorkers still remember that after Hurricane Sandy some neighborhoods were without power for days.