At one time, Freshkills Park was the world’s largest landfill, receiving the majority of NYC’s waste. Now, it’s being made into a park nearly three times the size of Central Park, and Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday it will soon include the city’s largest solar energy installation.
The proposed solar facility will provide 10 megawatts of electricity, five times what the current largest solar installation produces and enough to energise 2000 homes. The 47-acre solar complex will increase NYC’s renewable energy capacity by 50 per cent. The 35,000 high-efficiency solar panels will be installed and operated by Sun Edison at no cost to the city.
The solar installation is part of a larger project begun in 2008 to turn the 2,200 acre landfill, opened in 1947 as a temporary waste facility but eventually growing 25 meters taller than the Statue of Liberty, into NYC’s second-largest park. The solar installation will complement a current facility at the former landfill that collects enough methane to heat 22,000 homes. Sunny days ahead for this formerly blighted piece of land. [Mayor Bloomberg via ClimateProgress]
Image: MikeBloomberg.com