Introduction

Ravenswood Generating Station has played a significant role as the largest producer of power for New York City. It occupies 27 acres of waterfront land in Western Queens, generating over 20% of the city’s electricity across the street from New York’s largest public housing complex – Queensbridge. The Ravenswood site itself employs over 100 people and is used to deliver power during peak demand times as mandated by regulations to ensure there are no outages during these crucial periods.

Rise Light & Power, the current owner of Ravenswood, is committed to transforming the station from a fossil fuel plant to a clean energy hub known as Renewable Ravenswood. Its first renewable energy project – the Attentive Energy One offshore wind project, which will replace one of the fossil fuel generators at Ravenswood – was selected by New York State for a contract in October 2023. Rise Light & Power, along with Hester Street, has hosted numerous community engagement events about the Renewable Ravenswood vision.

The transformation of the Ravenswood station to a renewable energy hub goes beyond the physical site itself, into the communities that neighbor it. Within this context, the Queens Borough President’s Office and Rise Light & Power are partnering to complete a planning study.

The planning study will:

• Evaluate the context, history, and existing conditions of the site and the surrounding community.
• Identify economic development opportunities linked to growing economic sectors, including but not limited to the green economy.
• Convene the community to foster a vision for the future of the site.
• Define a site reuse plan and implementation roadmap.
• Develop community planning strategies to integrate the site into a healthy neighborhood, with robust opportunities for small businesses in the industrial space.
• Craft workforce development strategies to connect community members to family-sustaining jobs, including green jobs.

Ways to Support

The community will have several ways to participate in this planning study:

• There will be a community survey released to the public to inform a series of public workshops about the transformation of the Ravenswood site and neighborhood amenities and jobs.  
• There will be four public workshops to integrate community vision and ideas into the planning for Ravenswood’s future and its impact on the neighborhood.

Background

In 2023, the City of New York’s Queens Borough President’s Office was awarded through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s Just Transition Site Reuse Planning Program which is designed to provide communities with resources to inform future decision making at the local level to help mitigate any negative impacts of pending or future fossil fuel power plant closures. For more information on the Just Transition Site Reuse Planning Program visit NYSERDA’s website at nyserda.ny.gov.

Get Involved!

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