New York City quietly moves to let giant lithium ion batteries be installed on rooftops.
One city agency now stands between a private company and its plan to build a colossal lithium ion power bank on top of a Brooklyn building. If approved, the project would mark the first time such a substation is permitted to be built on the roof of a residential building anywhere in the boroughs, the US, and quite possibly the world.
But that doesn’t mean building residents are happy about it.
MicroGrid Networks, the for-profit company behind the plan, says viable locations for the battery storage — which is heralded as the future of green energy — are extremely limited, and building on top of New Yorkers’ homes is necessary if the city is to meet its climate goals.
The tenants of the Williamsburg apartment property that the hefty 18-battery bank…