Every moment, innumerable phones die around the country. But today, a few of them in New York City will be saved. A renewable energy company named Goal Zero is collaborating with AT&T and Brooklyn-based design studio Pensa on a new, eco-friendly solution for such a dilemma: public, solar-powered charging stations.
The stations, called Street Charge, have a sleek modern design, courtesy of Pensa. Goal Zero’s top-of-the-line solar panels, which sit atop a tall poll, branching out much like helicopter propellers, power these chargers. Each station has three small tables to rest your phone on while it charges and, best of all, you won’t even have to worry about having a charging cable with you. There will be both built-in USB ports as well as charging tips to plug your device into.
“We’re excited to team up with AT&T and Pensa to help make New York a little greener and solar power a little more accessible,” said Goal Zero’s president and CEO, Joe Atkin. “All too often we hear the dreaded low-battery beep and it happens at the most inconvenient times. Street Charge will fix that.”
If this all sounds familiar to you, it’s possible you saw an earlier prototype, which was tested out last summer in Dumbo, one of Brooklyn’s riverside neighborhoods. But this year, they’ll be spreading much farther. The stations debuted today in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park and, as summer progresses, more stations will be added all around the city, specifically in pedestrian-heavy areas. You can expect to see them at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Coney Island, Central Park (at the Summerstage), Governor’s Island, Hudson River Park, Randall’s Island, Riverside Park, Rockaways, and Union Square.
