Brooklyn Microgrid Helps Neighbors Trade Energy

Garry Golden, a resident of the South Park Slope section of Brooklyn, calls himself a futurist. And the future is happening right now on his street, Windsor Place, located two blocks south of Prospect Park. There, 11 residents have come together to create Brooklyn Microgrid, one of the world’s first cooperatives whose members produce electricity and trade it with each other and with neighbors who don’t have solar panels on their roofs but wish to support this green initiative.

“It’s a way for normal people to take control of their own electricity production,” says Noah Ginsburg, multi-family program manager with Here Comes Solar, part of Solar One’s effort to facilitate projects like Brooklyn Microgrid. “They’re going from being a consumer of energy to being a consumer and producer. This is a microcosm of what we’re going to see in coming years. A few years from now, every block is going to look like this block.”

Golden and Ginsburg are featured in this video produced by Bric TV, the first 24/7 television channel by, for and about Brooklyn.

By installing a meter beside their regular Con Ed electric meter, participants are able to keep track of how much excess electricity their solar panels produce – then feed that to their neighbors. The impetus for Brooklyn Microgrid is to bring renewable energy to people who might not be able to afford to install solar panels on their own roofs – renters and homeowners alike.

But Golden notes that even New Yorkers of modest means are discovering that solar panels are within their budgets. “It has become more affordable,” he says, “thanks to the right mix of local, state, and federal subsidies.”

“There’s a revolution happening right before our eyes,” adds Ginsburg.