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New York City selected its smallest borough for the site of its largest solar energy installation.
Staten Island's Freshkills Parks will be home to 10 megawatts (MW) of solar power, Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced on his website.
Freshkills Park was once known as the world's largest landfill, Bloomberg said. The solar development is part of an ongoing transformation of the land over the past 12 years, which has already included the restoration of wetlands and vegetation. About 47 acres of the land will be leased to SunEdison, which was selected through public bidding to design, construct, install and operate a solar array strong enough to power 2,000 homes.
"Freshkills, once a daily dumping ground, will become a showcase [of] urban renewal and sustainability,” Bloomberg said.
The project at Freshkills will increase New York’s renewable energy capacity by 50 percent.
Sergej Mahnovski, director of the Bloomberg’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, said the project would push the state's renewable regulations "to their boundaries" while expanding the power supply. He's also hoping for interconnection to be clarified in New York State one way or another, as it has been at the federal level or in states like California and Massachusetts.
"State programs aimed at increasing renewable energy will have to be expanded, and landfill post-closure care will have to be rewritten," Mahnovski said. "These are only a few of the challenges ahead. But this is a necessary undertaking in order to shift our power sector to a cleaner, more reliable energy future.”
Solar projects like Freshkills are part of PlaNYC, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the five boroughs by 30 percent by 2030.
In April, New York entered a third-party ownership agreement to install nearly 2 MW of solar energy on four city-owned buildings—the Port Richmond Waste Water Treatment Plant, two high schools in The Bronx and the Staten Island Ferry Maintenance Building. Nearly 700 kilowatts already exist on police precincts, park buildings, firehouses and other buildings in the city.
“Developing solar energy on Freshkills Park shows that large-scale renewable energy projects are possible in New York City, but this is only a first step,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway.
“If we are serious about meeting New York City’s tremendous energy needs from renewable sources we need the State and federal governments, as well as our utility partners and others in the private sector, to work with us to make solar and other renewable energies easier to develop, install and access the energy grid.”
Visit EcoWatch’s RENEWABLES page for more related news on this topic.
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A powerful volcano on Monday rocked an uninhabited island frequented by tourists about 30 miles off New Zealand's coast. Authorities have confirmed that five people died. They expect that number to rise as some are missing and police officials issued a statement that flights around the islands revealed "no signs of life had been seen at any point,", as The Guardian reported.
"Based on the information we have, we do not believe there are any survivors on the island," the police said in their official statement. "Police is working urgently to confirm the exact number of those who have died, further to the five confirmed deceased already."
The eruption happened on New Zealand's Whakaari/White Island, an islet jutting out of the Bay of Plenty, off the country's North Island. The island is privately owned and is typically visited for day-trips by thousands of tourists every year, according to The New York Times.
My god, White Island volcano in New Zealand erupted today for first time since 2001. My family and I had gotten off it 20 minutes before, were waiting at our boat about to leave when we saw it. Boat ride home tending to people our boat rescued was indescribable. #whiteisland pic.twitter.com/QJwWi12Tvt
— Michael Schade (@sch) December 9, 2019
Michael Schade / Twitter
At the time of the eruption on Monday, about 50 passengers from the Ovation of Seas were on the island, including more than 30 who were part of a Royal Caribbean cruise trip, according to CNN. Twenty-three people, including the five dead, were evacuated from the island.
The eruption occurred at 2:11 pm local time on Monday, as footage from a crater camera owned and operated by GeoNet, New Zealand's geological hazards agency, shows. The camera also shows dozens of people walking near the rim as white smoke billows just before the eruption, according to Reuters.
Police were unable to reach the island because searing white ash posed imminent danger to rescue workers, said John Tims, New Zealand's deputy police commissioner, as he stood next to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in a press conference, as The New York Times reported. Tims said rescue workers would assess the safety of approaching the island on Tuesday morning. "We know the urgency to go back to the island," he told reporters.
"The physical environment is unsafe for us to return to the island," Tims added, as CNN reported. "It's important that we consider the health and safety of rescuers, so we're taking advice from experts going forward."
Authorities have had no communication with anyone on the island. They are frantically working to identify how many people remain and who they are, according to CNN.
Geologists said the eruption is not unexpected and some questioned why the island is open to tourism.
"The volcano has been restless for a few weeks, resulting in the raising of the alert level, so that this eruption is not really a surprise," said Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, as The Guardian reported.
"White Island has been a disaster waiting to happen for many years," said Raymond Cas, emeritus professor at Monash University's school of earth, atmosphere and environment, as The Guardian reported. "Having visited it twice, I have always felt that it was too dangerous to allow the daily tour groups that visit the uninhabited island volcano by boat and helicopter."
The prime minister arrived Monday night in Whakatane, the town closest to the eruption, where day boats visiting the island are docked. Whakatane has a large Maori population.
Ardern met with local council leaders on Monday. She is scheduled to meet with search and rescue teams and will speak to the media at 7 a.m. local time (1 p.m. EST), after drones survey the island, as CNN reported.
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