Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Air Quality

Green Subways: An Answer Blowing in the Wind?

3:15 PM EST on November 13, 2007

234946793_dd350240bb.jpgAs part of its "Steal This Idea" series, Good magazine has a suggestion for a way to move toward a more sustainable New York: offering subway riders the chance to pay a little extra for a wind-powered ride.

Each year, the New York subway system uses 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, making it the city's single largest consumer of electricity. What if the subway's MetroCard machines offered the option of paying a small premium to purchase the rider's share of electricity from non-polluting wind power instead of traditional hydroelectric, nuclear, and fossil-fuel sources?

For its residential customers, ConEdison-the city's only electricity company-charges an additional 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour to use wind energy. The average subway ride uses 1.2 kilowatt-hours of power (based on 1.5 billion 2006 rides), which means the wind power surcharge would amount to 3 extra cents a ride-a 1.5 percent increase from the normal $2 charge.

With a 1.5 percent surcharge, a seven-day unlimited pass would cost $24.36 (up from $24), and a 30-day unlimited pass would cost $77.14 (up from $76). Say the surcharge was 5 percent-those prices would only increase to $25.20 and $79.80. A 5-percent per ride surcharge with a slim 10-percent participant rate could inject as much as $15 million into the wind-power market annually.

Sounds intriguing. But as recent efforts to establish wind farms upstate, off Long Island and in the Nantucket Sound have shown, a combination of high cost, environmental concerns, and plain old NIMBYism has bedeviled the development of wind energy in New York and elsewhere.

Photo: Nick Atkins Photography via Flickr 

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Feds One Step Closer to Requiring Safety Standards for Lithium-ion Batteries

Safety standards are fine, but the responsibility for securing better power packs will still fall on the lowest-paid workers in our city.

December 11, 2023

City Adds Another Moving Lane to Appease Car Drivers Near Williamsburg Bridge

Induced demand isn't just a theory — it's apparently a policy of the city Department of Transportation.

December 11, 2023

Monday’s Headlines: The Bronx Nobody Knows Edition

If you know someone who loves The Bronx and loves to walk, have we got a stocking stuffer for you. Plus, more important, the weekend's news.

December 11, 2023

Third Ave. ‘Complete Street’ Adds Wide Bike Lane, But Still Keeps Too Much Space for Cars

The bike lane is a good start, but the city must aim higher for its "complete streets," advocates say.

December 8, 2023
See all posts