Brooklyn Plans to Avoid Blackouts With Utility-Disrupting 'Microgrids'
- Producing power locally curbs need for electric-grid upgrades
- New York leads the way to disrupting utility business model
One World Trade Center stands the Lower Manhattan skyline at dusk in this aerial photograph.
Photographer: Craig Warga/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
If you want to see how U.S. utilities could lose control of the electricity industry, keep an eye on Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, which spent a week in the dark after Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012.
Red Hook is planning to use a mix of solar panels, battery storage and small wind turbines to create a “microgrid” that can power local apartment buildings, businesses and a community center, as well as ensure the neighborhood can successfully endure another big storm.