Staten Island, home to the un-greenest mess in New York City in the form of the former Fresh Kills landfill, has been popping up recently on the sustainable radar. Now, it’s the mess itself that may be the answer to the greening of energy for all of New York City. Well, the beginning of an answer. Last week, Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro wrote an op-ed in City Hall (and posed with a rather cute model of a wind turbine for his photo) about a proposal to build seven 400-foot wind turbines that could generate 17 megawatts of energy - situated right at the site of the landfill. All this could be done, he wrote, for a mere $40 million funded by a private operator, at no cost to the city. Unfortunately, those 17 megawatts are only enough to power 5000 homes.
May 19th, 2008 | Alex Padalka | 1 comment | Continued