Solar Canopies: Creating Physical Space with Renewables
NYC’s future as Climate Change impacts manifest & plans to mitigate emissions
New York City is undergoing fast transitions, as initiatives to address impending climate change impacts surface. Climate change impacts will be felt globally– each region and city will experience unique impacts. Specifically, among other impacts, it is projected that New York City will face rising temperatures across the city generating, what are now being called, Urban Heat Islands. In an effort to reduce these impacts and reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change, City leaders are releasing initiatives citywide.
Mitigate climate change-causing emissions:
On April 22nd, 2019 New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced New York City’s Green New Deal, a plan to combat global warming, with committed investments, legislation, and other actions to ensure that the City level of emissions will be reduced by nearly 30% by 2030. One initiative under the City’s Green New Deal is to commit to carbon neutrality by 2050, and 100% clean electricity–“[…] while creating green jobs and holding polluters responsible for climate-related costs.”
Address the rising temperatures caused by climate change:
Rising temperatures will affect all New Yorkers, but will disproportionately impact low-income neighborhoods with low amounts of green canopy, and high amounts of blacktop– creating heat-vulnerable communities. Nationally, extreme heat is the number one cause of mortality from weather conditions. There are 130 New Yorkers who die annually from intense heat, and this will be exacerbated when average temperatures are expected to increase by up to 5.7 degrees Fahrenheit by the 2050s.
Address the increasing concentration of Urban Heat Islands:
“‘Urban heat islands’ occur when cities replace natural land cover with dense concentrations of pavement, buildings, and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat. This effect increases energy costs (e.g., for air conditioning), air pollution levels, and heat-related illness and mortality.” To showcase the impacts that Heat Islands can have:
- Increased Energy Consumption
- Elevated Emissions of Air Pollutants and Greenhouse Gases
- Compromised Human Health and Comfort
Mitigate emissions and the impacts of rising temperatures & Urban Heat Islands:
Solar Canopies have been created as a result from a partnership between SITU and Brooklyn SolarWorks. A Solar Canopy is a structure that elevates solar panels. The original form of this structure was created to sit on top of city building roofs. They’ve now been redesigned to stand as residential car ports, and yard pergolas. These canopies have been designed for easy transport, construction, and “elevate above common obstructions and fire code constraints, while creating shaded space for decks, green roofs and other amenities.” When building these structures, Situ wanted the canopies to obstruct as little space as possible. The physicality of the object and structure is important, to how people are utilizing the space underneath these structures.
We must achieve carbon neutrality — which means a 100 percent reduction in net GHG emissions — by 2050. This will require a radical shift to end our reliance on fossil fuels and ensure 100 percent clean electricity resources, and to transform the city’s buildings, energy, transportation, and waste sectors to fully electrify the city.
— OneNYC 2050 Report
Blending digital and physical:
While it’s unclear what specific types of solar panels Brooklyn SolarWorks implements for they canopies, the following anecdote is an example of how solar panels have become more digitized. Combining Brooklyn SolarWorks’ current initiatives with digitized solar panels would be an even more impactful blending of digital and physical experiences to mitigate climate change causes and impacts.
How do solar panels work digitally?
GE is working towards more reliable solar power and employs digital aspects to increase the reliability of their panels. Solar power is a great source of renewable energy–clean, limitless, widely available, and increasingly more affordable. Currently the diagnosis of issues with panels can take up to weeks to be addressed and fixed. Problems are usually diagnosed by a technician visiting the issue on site, and only after the technician visit are parts, needed for the repair, ordered. The part can take weeks to receive, meaning this source of power can be offline for that period of time. GE has developed a system of operators that can monitor their solar farms online in real time, spot problems before they occur and schedule repairs for evening hours, when the sky is dark and the plant doesn’t produce power. This technology utilizes machine learning and data science.
This digital technology can be paired with the Solar Canopy’s physical structure. Because of the elevated structure, they allow for the space underneath to be used. There’s so many innovative things that can be done under these panels. So, you can help New York City move towards 100% renewable energy and receive shade from rising temperatures!
