Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has announced a plan to outfit municipal buildings with solar panels and to begin buying heating oil containing biofuels. He made this announcement shortly after turning on the switch for the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) project, a installation that will provide more than 1000kw hours per day of renewable electricity
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Lieutenant Governor David A. Paterson today announced that Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy project has now generated and delivered the world’s first kinetic hydro-power to local businesses. Kinetic hydro-power is an emerging form of renewable energy derived from the natural flow of water, without the use of dams. RITE is using the first free-flow tidal turbines in the world, providing more than 1000kW hours per day of clean, emission-free electricity to Roosevelt Island. The turbines are operated by Verdant Power, Inc., a global integrator of kinetic or “free-flow” hydro-power systems and a leading marine renewable energy developer of dam-less hydro-power sites.
“Supporting innovative projects like Verdant’s is an important part of PlaNYC and will help us meet our goal of reducing New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by the year 2030,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “In addition, today I’m announcing that the City is issuing an RFP for emissions free electricity from solar power generated on City owned buildings. This should send a message to the solar power industry: ‘We want your business.’ Because we expect our population to grow by nearly a million people between now and 2030, it’s important that we do everything we can to limit our impact on climate change, including supporting the development of more renewable energy sources. We hope that water turbines, solar panels, and other sources of renewable energy will will be the norm in the coming decades, but that will only happen if we support these technologies and industries today.”