Powering Equity: Centering Communities in NYC’s Battery Storage Future

Project Partner: New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, Summer 2025

Project Summary: Niouma’s internship focused on assisting the Clean Energy Team with a variety of projects that seek to streamline, expedite, and enable an equitable deployment of renewable energy assets and infrastructure in New York City.

As New York City and State race toward ambitious clean energy goals, battery storage systems (BESS) are critical to replacing fossil fuel infrastructure and building a resilient electric grid. But without meaningful community engagement, these projects risk perpetuating the same environmental injustices they aim to solve, particularly in low-income and historically overburdened neighborhoods.

During Niouma’s internship with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, she developed a Community Best Practices Guide for energy storage developers. This resource provides clear, equity-centered recommendations for engaging communities, from early outreach and public meeting design to partnerships, workforce opportunities, and benefit-sharing mechanisms. By translating technical energy concepts into actionable and accessible strategies, Niouma’s work supported the City’s effort to align BESS development with its environmental justice priorities. The guide aims to build trust, encourage transparency, and help developers serve as good neighbors.

Building on Niouma’s interest in working within city government to tackle environmental health disparities, this project sharpened her understanding of the intersection between public health, energy policy, and environmental equity. She decided to extend her work with the city beyond the summer internship to finalize the draft Community Best Practices Guide, as well begin data coordination between agencies to have a more streamlined consolidation process.

Project Deliverables: 

  • Conducted research on best community engagement and outreach practices for energy storage deployment in New York City in order to create guidelines
  • Created public-facing energy storage best practices and guidance asset: NYC Best Practices Guide for Battery Storage Deployment

 

Watch Niouma’s URBAN Internship Lightning Talk here.

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