David Yassky

Solar Panels, Biofuel and Tidal Turbines in Bloomberg Plans (New York Times)

By DIANE CARDWELLPublished: June 12, 2007 

Moving to harness cleaner forms of energy to meet the city's growing power demands, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced a plan yesterday to outfit municipal buildings with solar panels and to begin buying heating oil containing biofuels.  

At the same time, he said, a project that uses turbines beneath the East River to deliver electricity will be significantly expanded.  

The announcements were related to an overall package of measures unveiled in April, PlaNYC, intended to help the city cope in an environmentally sound way with the one million new residents expected by 2030. But the East River hydropower project, along with the solar and biofuel plans, shows how the city is already moving in several directions to supplement its aging power plants.  

''It's important that we do everything we can to limit our impact on climate change, and that includes expanding our use of cleaner energy sources,'' Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference at the East River's edge on Roosevelt Island.  

In the hydropower project, begun in 2002, six turbines spin with the tides like underwater windmills, producing electricity without dams to power a supermarket and parking garage on Roosevelt Island. Officials at Verdant Power, the Virginia company given permits for the project, plan to expand, according to Mr. Bloomberg, with more than 300 turbines producing enough power for 8,000 homes a year.  

Also, Mr. Bloomberg said, the city plans to seek companies to install and maintain solar panels on government buildings. Under the potential arrangements, the city would then buy the power, possibly at a savings.  

Turning his attention to the land, Mr. Bloomberg also announced a plan to use more biofuel in government buildings, saying that by next summer, 30 percent of the city's heating oil purchases would be required to contain 5 percent biofuel, which is derived from soybeans or corn. That percentage is to grow to 10 percent by 2010 and 20 percent by 2012.  

City Councilman David Yassky said that he planned to introduce legislation next week that would accelerate that timetable, with agencies replacing all of their fuel with a 20 percent biofuel mix by 2011. For private buildings, including homes and offices, the legislation would mandate a 5 percent mix in 2009, increasing to a 20 percent mix, which Mr. Yassky said is compatible with traditional heating systems, by 2013. Mr. Bloomberg said he intended to work with the City Council on comprehensive biofuel legislation.  

He discussed those plans at Union Square Park, after the Roosevelt Island conference, while announcing that this year's Farm Aid concert would take place on Sept. 9 on Randalls Island, with tickets on sale Saturday morning through Ticketmaster. After touring the Greenmarket and munching peas with two founders of the annual benefit, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson, Mr. Bloomberg said that the biofuel effort would help support family farmers by expanding the market for their products.  

Mr. Nelson said that at first he thought that his wife had finally found his ''Maui stash'' when she suggested buying a car fueled with vegetable oil, but that he now had a fleet of such vehicles.  

He said that it made sense to bring the concert to such a densely populated urban center because, ''more people eat probably around here than anywhere in the world.''