Aggrieved renters in Brooklyn have taken an uncommon case to court docket — one which includes battery storage.
At Williamsburg’s 315 Berry St., residents have filed a swimsuit in opposition to the Metropolis of New York and their constructing proprietor over a plan to let a non-public firm set up an unlimited lithium ion energy financial institution on their roof.
If constructed, the substation could be the primary on a residential rooftop within the US, and presumably the world.
The Publish reported on the scenario final yr, when a single metropolis company, the Board of Requirements and Appeals, stood between MicroGrid Networks and their plan to put in a 2.5-megawatt storage financial institution on the roof of the seven-story loft constructing.
In August, the Board gave MicroGrid their blessing through a particular use allow, a call residents are looking for a reversal of, calling the facility financial institution a “extremely harmful lithium battery storage system,” which it was an “abuse of the Board’s discretion” to approve, in accordance with a swimsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court docket this week, the Actual Deal first reported.
Moreover, the swimsuit claims that, because the constructing is rent-stabilized, the Division of Houses and Neighborhood Renewal wanted to additionally log out earlier than giving MicroGrid the go forward for the battery, which they additional allege would enhance the property’s fireplace danger.
Landlord Richard Herbst, nonetheless, tells The Publish that, even earlier than the swimsuit was filed, MicroGrid’s plan was already off the desk.
“[The] reality is that we now have lengthy deserted the concept of putting the battery storage system on our constructing,” he instructed The Publish in an e mail, including that he hasn’t but seen the swimsuit. “There was a window of alternative over the previous yr, whereas different development was occurring within the constructing anyway, to get the battery mission achieved with minimal inconvenience to the residents. That chance is now gone.”
To Herbst, the “losers” of the scenario “are the residents of the Williamsburg waterfront space who would have benefitted from a extra strong and cleaner vitality provide.”
In response, tenants say they had been unaware the battery mission was now useless within the water, however that they contemplate the difficulty to be far greater than their constructing.
“This isn’t simply us, it’s the entire metropolis,” one resident commented.
MicroGrid didn’t return The Publish’s request for remark, and the BSA replied to say that they don’t touch upon issues which might be pending litigation.
Such lithium ion phosphate banks — that are an order of magnitude bigger however notably completely different from the batteries utilized in e-bikes — have certainly been heralded as the way forward for inexperienced vitality within the metropolis, and comparable ones are presently put in atop the Barclays Heart and JFK Airport’s common TWA Resort. However Herbst now believes to be able to get them on high of residential roofs, will probably be needed for the town to “mandate that homeowners retrofit their buildings to assist the electrical grid.”
Certainly, Herbst warns different landlords in opposition to permitting batteries to be put in on their roofs within the present local weather.
“I perceive that the town has since modified the zoning legal guidelines, making it simpler to have battery storage techniques put in in residential zones,” he stated. “However until they embrace a provision for immunizing homeowners in opposition to lawsuits, just like what cell towers now take pleasure in, I’d advise homeowners to suppose twice earlier than continuing.”