Six Astoria and LIC schools will soon be
solar powered
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
I.S. 141 – The Steinway school in Astoria will soon
be a part of a cohort of solar-powered schools
in New York City.
On Jan. 30., Councilman Costa Constantinides
announced at a press conference that solar panels
will be installed in the Astoria middle school with
construction set to begin this spring.
“By the end of this year this school will be at the
forefront of how we power a public school in the 21st
century,” said Constantinides.
The middle school will the be the first of six schools
within the councilman’s district to receive solar panels in
an attempt to mitigate the destructive impact of climate
change. There are a total of 15 schools within the 22nd
City Council District that Constantinides represents.
Though some, including the president, believe
that climate change is a myth, Constantinides said
the city and younger generations of Americans
know better.
“You guys are going to be the ones who fix the mess
we made,” said Constantinides to a row of seventh- and
eighth-graders in I.S. 141 – The Steinway school’s
auditorium where the press conference was held.
The other selected schools include P.S. 151 – The
Mary D Carter School, I.S 126 – The Albert Shanker
School of Visual & Performing Arts, P.S 171 – Peter G
Van Alst, P.S. 122 – Mamie Fay and I.S. 10 – Horace
Greeley Middle School.
In 2014, New York City became the first major
U.S. city to pass a bill calling for an 80 percent re-duction
26 FEBRUARY 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
in the city’s carbon emissions by 2050 and
the implementation of the solar panels in schools is
part if this effort.
In his State of the City address in 2016, Mayor
de Blasio committed to “increase solar capacity” on
cut buildings five-fold over the next three years to
25 Mv, enough to power more than 6,000 New York
City households.
The city owns over 4,000 buildings including public
schools, public hospitals and libraries.
But making buildings more energy efficient is just
one measure to cut carbon emissions.
The city, as noted on its Sustainability website,
would also ideally needs to replace many fossil fuel
based heating and hot water systems with renewable
or high efficiency electric systems, transition toward
a renewable based electric grid, achieve zero waste
in landfills, and reduce the number of miles driven in
the city while replacing remaining vehicles to zero
emission vehicles.
“The work that we have done already has yielded
the effect of over 700 cars off the road,” Depart-ment
of Citywide Administrative Services Com-missioner
Lisette Camilo said during the press
conference.
Community News
Photo by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech
/www.qns.com
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