REMARKS
Council Member Sandy Nurse opens committee meeting on decarbonization efforts
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5 min
Council Member Sandy Nurse highlights New York City's need to radically increase its use of solar PV and battery storage systems to meet legal decarbonization mandates.
- Discusses Local Law 97 of 2019 and the New York Climate Leadership And Community Protection Act's emission reduction targets.
- Emphasizes the critical roles of solar PV systems and battery energy storage in achieving these targets.
- Details the city's current shortfall in installed solar capacity and outlines potential for increased battery storage capacity.
- Announces legislation aimed at accelerating solar and energy storage systems deployment.
- Stresses the urgency of meeting the city's clean energy goals and promoting environmental justice through prioritized investments.
Sandy Nurse
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Alright.
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We're gonna resume.
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The city has a legal obligation to decarbonize.
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Local law 97 of 2019 requires the city to achieve a 40% reduction in emissions from government operations by 2025.
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And a 50% reduction in such emissions by 2030.
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On the state level, the New York Climate Leadership And Community Protection Act requires New York State to reduce statewide emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030 and 85% by 2050.
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Solar PV systems and battery energy storage systems will be critical to decarbonizing our electric grid and in meeting our city, state, and climate goals.
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In 2014, the De Blasio administration announced a goal of installing a 100 megawatts of solar power generation on city buildings to help the city meet its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.
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However, as of September 2030, decast has only installed 23 megawatts of solar PV panels on city facilities, less than a quarter of the city's goal to install a 100 megawatt of solar by 2025.
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Battery energy storage systems, which can capture energy at the time of production and store it until it is needed, are critical to the success of renewable energy systems such as solar that produce electricity from the natural environment and cannot scale up production in real time in response to demand and will help ease our transition away from fossil fuels.
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The power up NYC report found the potential for 400 megawatts of energy storage on city owned unused vacant land and parking lots.
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Over 3000 megawatts of battery storage capacity, in repurposed power plants and another potential 7000 megawatts of battery storage capacity on private vacant land.
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These are valuable tools that we can use to decarbonize, but only if the city takes decisive action.
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The committee looks forward to hearing from Decast, an MOCJ on how the city plans to utilize the resources available to us to increase the production of solar power and the deployment of battery storage systems that will help the city wean itself off of fossil fuels once and for all.
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In addition to hearing from the administration, the committee will hear the following legislation.
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Intro number 129, sponsored by council member Brandon, would require decast to install solar power power capturing canopies at each city controlled parking lot that receives solar radiation where such installation would be cost effective.
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We will also hear several bills sponsored by myself, intro number 347 would exempt rooftop solar installation projects from any fees in connection with an application for a street crane permit.
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Interim number 353 would require the city to install a 100 megawatts of a 100 megawatts on city owned buildings and other properties by 2030.
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Lastly, intro 354 would require decast in coordination with MOCEJ to identify city owned lots suitable for installing energy storage systems and install at least 300 megawatts of energy storage capacity on those lots by 2030.
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And 400 megawatts by the end of 2035.
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These bills build on and codify previous goals outlined in the 1 NYC plan NYC and power up NYC plans to ensure the administration is on track to meet the city's clean energy goals.
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The city must be aggressive and urgently and equitably meeting our climate goals.
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New York City can catalyze good union labor jobs by leveraging federal opportunities to fund solar and energy storage.
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The city can also address environmental injustices by prioritizing investments in decision Vantage Communities.
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I would like to thank the committee staff, committee counsel Claire Michael Claire McClacklin.
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Okay.
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Claire McClacklin?
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Policy analyst, Ricky Chawla, and Andrew Bourne, financial analyst, Tanvir Singh, and my director of climate environmental policy, Amel Hernandez.
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And Chair Jenaro's legislative director, Navi Kaira, for all their hard work.
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Finally, I will note that written test Money, which will be reviewed in full by committee staff, must be maybe submitted to the record up to 72 hours after the close of this hearing by emailing it to testimony at counsel dotmic.gov.
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We ask that all witnesses who are testifying today abide by the 3 minute time allowance.
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I'm usually pretty flat not as strict as chair general, although these were his remarks.
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Please note that public witnesses are not permitted to film themselves as they testified, nor are they permitted to show prerecorded video as part of their testimony.
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Thank you.