Energy Infrastructure Boat Tour

The city’s electricity grid, like so much of its infrastructure, functions at a massive scale while remaining mostly unnoticed. When New Yorkers turn on their air conditioner, charge their phone, or take the subway, they likely aren’t thinking about the vast network of generating stations and power storage facilities making these daily functions possible, until the system’s fragility is revealed. Extreme heat and severe weather events fueled by climate change can strain the electrical grid to its limit and put power infrastructure at risk, forcing us to consider how much of daily life relies on a seamless flow of energy.

On this summer evening boat tour, explore the city’s energy infrastructure from the water, where it’s possible to trace the arc of New York’s grid from its past into the future. Beginning in Midtown, before traveling to Astoria and Sunset Park, participants will hear about the landmark power plants during the era of Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse, and get a front row seat to the construction and redevelopment of new clean energy facilities on the city’s waterfront.The tour will reveal many of the complex systems hidden in plain sight and offer insight into many of the urgent energy questions that will define New York’s future.

Led by sustainability expert Cullen Brown, who specializes in revealing the “invisible” infrastructure of the city, the tour will translate complex systems of engineering and ingenuity for participants to learn about how the city’s grid came to be, how it works today, and what its future may look like. As the sun sets and the city’s skyline begins to glow, the lights may look a little different after a front-row seat to the system powering them.

Cullen Brown is a licensed New York City guide who translates his passion for energy, engineering, and the environment into tours that bring you into contact with the infrastructure that makes our lives in NYC possible. His tours focus on electricity, water, steam, transit, and the people who built and maintain those very systems. Originally from Buffalo, New York, Cullen was inspired by the natural and industrial history of Niagara Falls, as well as his historic preservationist parents, to learn and share knowledge about our natural and built environment. In his career with the New York Power Authority, he translates engineering concepts into conversations with everyday people.

Tickets
$55 Members: Pre-sale begins July 15 at noon

$70 General Admission: On sale July 20 at noon

$10 Community Tickets: Request a Ticket

Members will be sent a code to unlock tickets during the pre-sale on July 15 via email.

Photo: Ben Helmer

Presented with support from TD Bank