One Earth (OE): Cities are at the center of the climate conversation. What inspired the focus on urban energy solutions?
Melanie(M): I learned about solar being introduced to New York City, where I live, and also wind power throughout the state. I grew very curious about how this works. How can one tiny solar system on a high-rise make a difference? How can more infrastructure fit into an already crowded place? How does wind power in a rural area like upstate NY even help New York City? I didn't know, at the time I started the film, how the grid worked and I had a real crash course in engineering and physics, which I loved.
My research was expansive at the beginning and I was also looking at rural areas. But much of the information at that time, for rural places, would be something like an off-grid cabin in the woods. I felt like people understood how that worked but understanding of how this works in cities and congested urban areas was more limited. Plus, it was a different time when I was doing this research (as far back as 2015 although mostly in 2016-17) and cities were making very impressive commitments to renewable energy. So that's what I followed. The story that was emerging was about how cities wanted to do this, and I wanted to see how they would chip away at it.
In the end, I did include rural areas through the Puerto Rico and Vermont stories. I have several takeaways from these differences. There's no one size fits all plan. Places like Las Vegas and New York City have vastly different energy usage than a rural area in Puerto Rico. Also the grid is important for urban areas but in Puerto Rico and Vermont, the solar installations were actually re-designs, to an extent, of the grid. In both of those places there are mountains and the grid extends through these mountains for miles, to reach small, clustered populations. That means miles upon miles of cables through largely unpopulated areas. Both also regularly have extreme weather events that damage the grid, meaning lots of maintenance. In both places people felt like this design of a central grid caused a lot of expense and maintenance, but local microgrids made more sense and were also easier to maintain.
But that's not really viable in New York City, for example, because of the massive energy use and interconnectness. While there are some microgrids being introduced to cities, the urban solutions have to chip away at a bigger system and add clean infrastructure like Renewable Rikers, which is a piece of a system. But an important piece that replaces the most polluting part of the old system with new, clean technology. This also addresses issues like air pollution and environmental justice in addition to energy production.
Because each place in the film has such different geography, needs, energy use, and available resources, I'm glad that, in the end, my title of "How To Power A City" extended to include smaller areas and populations as well as large urban areas.
OE: What challenges did you uncover when trying to transition an entire city to renewable energy?
M: In Las Vegas, Mayor Goodman truly led the nation and maybe the world in transitioning the city's energy use to renewables. The challenges there were figuring out how to finance it, although when I interviewed her for the film she really didn't speak about that much, as it was more of an administrative challenge. She said her city council was all very aligned in wanting the renewables.
In New York City, the challenges are enormous. As mentioned above, the design of creating something that will make a difference and also be feasible. Getting that approved by the City Council. Then inevitable backlash and delays in implementation. In the NYC story in the film, Costa Constantinides leads the passage of two key laws: Renewable Rikers, which I focused on, and also a NYC Green New Deal law that limits building emissions. He had to face the challenges of fossil fuel lobbyists who don't want to see these get passed and implemented. He had to build and lead coalitions of supporters for years to get these laws passed.
This didn't make it into the film because we'd concluded filming before the pandemic, but since you are asking about challenges one big one is that even with great laws like Renewable Rikers getting passed, they are not always implemented right away. Opponents of these laws include building owners who don't want to invest in cleaner heating systems, and are trying to undermine the fines that buildings will pay if they don't comply with the NYC Green New Deal. Renewable Rikers is current law but it's progress has been very slow, and also our last mayor made it a relatively low priority level. There's a lot of hope that under Mayor Mamdani it will speed up.
An important overarching challenge is that the public does not understand how energy systems work, even if they are generally in support of renewable energy. That's why events like the One Earth Film Festival are so important to start the conversations that help us learn together. There is an incredible amount of misinformation in the news about renewable energy, and yet we all stand to benefit so much from learning how these work so we can advocate for them in our own communities. It's wonderful to know you are keeping this conversation going.
OE: How can communities and policymakers work together to power cities more sustainably?
M: This is really the core question the film addresses - because each community differs in needs, priorities, budget, and geography, each must determine what works best for them. But there are some throughlines. City council members told me that hearing from community members about wanting solar or wind power is important. Someone has to start a conversation! If a policy maker never hears from local residents that they'd like to see solar or wind in their community or they'd like a town hall or event, you can understand how other things might take priority. So just engaging at a very basic level is crucial. In my own neighborhood in Queens we have a group that meets regularly to talk about energy innovations in the city, makes phone calls, and engages with state policies.
Informing yourself about what works locally is also key, and there are groups like Solar United Neighbors that work in dozens of states that can be a great starting point.
By the way, most policymakers addressing energy policy are at the city or state level, not the federal level.
I can share a variety of ways I've seen communities work with policy makers:
In the film, just a few examples are:
- New York City policy makers hold town halls to discuss how solar or wind works in the city.
- New York City policy makers work with local community leaders to address a major concern - air pollution and asthma - by creating a renewable energy project that will also "turn off" an exceptionally polluting part of the existing system, called peaker plants. This was a very long process that required the participation of many community leaders and policy makers.
- In Puerto Rico, people in small rural towns worked with their local mayors, and many created hurricane-resilient community centers by having donated solar panels and batteries installed on places like cafes and community centers.
- In Highland Park, Soulardarity works very closely with the City of Highland Park in creating places for the off-grid solar powered streetlights; this involves getting access to the little strip of ground that the streetlight must stand on. This is kind of technical but it is a make-or-break detail that requires policymaker input and decisions.
- In Highland Park, having a tiny solar off-grid garden shed provided a way for people to see a solar power system up close. It only made enough electricity for the garden tools but it was also easy, inexpensive, and tangible. Sometimes seeing these projects on a small scale allows people to glimpse the larger picture, and they learn a lot from them. Policy makers can work with community gardens, for example, to have small solar panel setups for the garden's use.
From other places that have screened the film:
- An Ohio city built low-income housing with solar panels, and held a big public event to educate the people who were going to get these homes about solar. (They screened How To Power A City at the event to help people learn about solar).
- Another screening in Ohio brought a state representative to speak on a panel afterwards about her efforts to lead solar in Ohio. This was at a science museum and it helped show that solar is possible in the Midwest (because part of the film is in Michigan) and that there are steps to creating these systems, it's not all at once.
Get a ticket to How To Power A City on 4/24
