https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/climateconnections/CX211231.mp3
Astoria, New York, was once home to the Charles Poletti power plant – often considered New York City’s worst source of air pollution. But now the same site will be used for the East River Energy Storage System – a new 100-megawatt battery facility.
“That’s about enough power to provide about 80,000-100,000 typical households for four hours,” says Sarah Salati of the New York Power Authority, the largest state public power organization in the U.S.
She says the battery system will charge when excess power is available and then return electricity to the grid when needed.
That will reduce the need for the local utility to use highly-polluting “peaker” plants – fossil fuel plants that are only used when energy demand surges.
It will also allow the utility to store and use more…