Page 10 - CooperatorNews New York September 2021

10 COOPERATORNEWS —
SEPTEMBER 2021
COOPERATORNEWS.COM
The Bronx Is Greening
How the Boogie-Down Borough Is Leading in Alternative Energy
BY DARCEY GERSTEIN
As the COVID-19 pandemic descended green power sources and infrastructure and boring Queens as a candidate for phased
upon the country at the end of last winter, sharing resources and information.
notably taking hold initially and most prom-
inently in New York City’s outer boroughs,
which include some of the most diverse ZIP Point CDC is examining the feasibility of completed by March 2021 prior to COVID,
codes in the United States, it quickly became using warehouse roofs to install solar pan-
apparent that communities of color were els that can be owned and maintained by city to transition other peaker plants, which
being impacted more heavily and more se-
verely by the pandemic. Part of this outsized ect called Hunts Point Community Solar. As and Queens low-income communities, to
impact can be traced to the disproportionate Fernando Ortiz, climate preparedness and zero emissions—in line with the state’s car-
rates of underlying health conditions that ex-
ist in such communities, which are in turn a plains, “We have all these industrial sites that of battery storage by 2025 and 3,000 MW of
factor of decades of energy policy and infra-
structure that placed polluting power plants mental and social issues—for the commu-
and toxic waste sites at the doorstep (some-
times literally) of residents.
But now such communities are looking us access to your roof; let’s have a more equi-
to reverse these devastating trends by priori-
tizing energy efficiency and public power in community that you are part of.”
their neighborhoods and buildings. In the
Bronx, non-profit groups like The Point CDC vert peaker plants—fossil fuel-powered me-
and South Bronx Unite are flipping the script ga-polluters that were intended as temporary would also be a model for consumer control.
on traditional energy sources, supply, and fixes at the turn of the millennium for the “We want to not just advocate for alternative
even ownership, advocating for and organiz-
ing alternatives that produce cleaner, more California were enduring at the time during own it.”
affordable energy and put the control in the peak energy usage—into battery storage. Go-
hands of the people who use it. And Bronx thamist’s reporting indicates that a July 2019
co-ops and other multifamily communities New York State Energy Research & Develop-
are going back to their roots in collective ment Authority (NYSERDA) study identi-
ownership and advocacy by converting to fied the Ravenswood peaker plant in neigh-
Hunts Point Community Solar
According to a Gothamist story, The conversion, which was expected to be mostly
South Bronx residents themselves, in a proj-
resiliency organizer for The Point CDC, ex-
have historically created issues—environ-
nity. And there’s now a potential opportunity would still be powered partly by polluting
to remediate some of those past issues. Give fossil fuels and delivered by for-profit utili-
table energy system. Let’s feed back into the responsible for the city’s summer blackouts
There are already plans underway to con-
types of black- and brownouts that states like energy sources,” says Ortiz. “We also want to
conversion into an 8-hour battery storage
facility that can power 250,000 homes. The
is considered a new sustainable model for the
are by and large located in Bronx, Brooklyn,
bon-reduction goals that include 1,500 MW
storage by 2030.
But the Ravenswood battery storage
ties like Con Edison, which have been largely
and rising utility costs. Therefore, projects
like Hunts Point Community Solar would
not only provide a cleaner energy source, but
Sherman Terrace Cooperative
At 1010 Sherman Avenue, in the heart of
the Grand Concourse in the South Bronx,
Sherman Terrace Cooperative (STC) is a 67-
unit co-op building developed in 1957 that
is now “dispelling the wealth illusion associ-
ated with energy conservation and on-site
energy generation by taking responsibility
for its environmental impact and making
strategic investments in clean energy choices
for infrastructure and in building opera-
tions,” according to current board president
Derek Jones.
With a majority minority shareholder
population since its inception, STC is cur-
rently home to a demographic of 74.62%
Black, 14.93% Hispanic, 5.97% White, 2.98%
Asian, and 1.49% Indian residents, 37% of
whom are retired, and nearly 100% of whom
are characterized as low to moderate in-
come. The co-op’s seven-member board has
set intentions for the building to be “a posi-
tive, proactive, conscious example for the
surrounding community,” says Jones, who
spearheaded the board’s transition to a more
progressive-minded governing body focused
on lasting and impactful capital improve-
ments and community engagement.
Inspired by the alternative energy initia-
tives undertaken by the adjacent Melrose
neighborhood—the only Certified Gold
LEED district in the state of New York, says
Jones—STC has taken on several projects re-
cently to reduce its carbon footprint and be-
come a model for on-site energy production
and sustainability. After engaging energy
consultant EN-POWER GROUP, the co-op
retrofitted all common area lighting to LEDs
and participated in Con Edison’s Multifam-
ily LED Lighting Incentive Program that al-
lowed shareholders to swap out conventional
light bulbs for energy-efficient LEDs in their
units.
Additionally, STC improved the internal
building air quality in common areas, as well
as in 24 individual apartments, by complet-
ing high-pressure, negative-suction cleaning
of all air ducts with commercial-grade high-
efficiency particulate air (HEPA) vacuums.
This project was undertaken before the threat
of COVID-19 even surfaced, intended as a
preventive measure for the already prevalent
respiratory illnesses and allergies that are
commonly caused and spread by inefficient
or faulty duct systems, where harmful mi-
croorganisms, fungi, and viruses can grow.
Having the improved duct system during the
coronavirus pandemic has surely benefitted
both residents and staff of the building.
ENERGY
continued on page 17