The city’s electricity grid, like so much of its infrastructure, functions at a massive scale while remaining mostly unnoticed. When New Yorkers turn on their air conditioner, charge their phone, or take the subway, they likely aren’t thinking about the vast network of generating stations and power storage facilities making these daily functions possible, until the system’s fragility is revealed. Extreme heat and severe weather events fueled by climate change can strain the electrical grid to its limit and put power infrastructure at risk, forcing us to consider how much of daily life relies on a seamless flow of energy.
On this summer evening boat tour, explore the city’s energy infrastructure from the water, where it’s possible to trace the arc of New York’s grid from its past into the future. Beginning in Midtown, before traveling to Astoria and Sunset Park, participants will hear about the landmark power plants during the era of Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse, and get a front row seat to the construction and redevelopment of new clean energy facilities on the city’s waterfront, including Equinor's Empire Wind project and the in-progress Brooklyn Clean Energy Hub. The tour will reveal many of the complex systems hidden in plain sight and offer insight into many of the urgent energy questions that will define New York’s future.
Led by sustainability expert Cullen Brown, who specializes in revealing the “invisible” infrastructure of the city, the tour will translate complex systems of engineering and ingenuity for participants to learn about how the city’s grid came to be, how it works today, and what its future may look like. As the sun sets and the city’s skyline begins to glow, the lights may look a little different after a front-row seat to the system powering them.