NYC residents trade solar energy with their neighbours

A community microgrid is helping New Yorkers exchange renewable power

Residents in two New York City neighbourhoods are helping to keep each other’s lights on by sharing energy generated by solar panels.

Using a TransActive Grid, people in Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal and Park Slope neighbourhoods are able to give away or sell excess solar power they produced with rooftop panels to those living nearby.

I wanted to sell my power locally, so that the dollars stay in Brooklyn and in New York City

Community microgrids like the Brooklyn microgrid are able to operate independently of larger regional or national grids. They can give those connected to them more control over what happens to any excess energy produced.

“It just makes sense from an environmental picture, and from a financial picture,” said Park Slope resident Milton Ross. “I got interested in the microgrid because I wanted to sell my power locally, so that the dollars stay in Brooklyn and in New York City.”

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