New York City prides itself on being a city powered by innovation, but only in recent years has the city truly begun to embrace cutting-edge technology as a major part of its infrastructure. The latest experiment to hit the city's streets is called Street Charge, a tool that, if successful, could become the gold standard for marrying mobile computing with green tech in major urban centers in the U.S.

Introduced today by AT&T, Goal Zero, and design studio PENSA, the outdoor outposts are solar-powered stations that allow mobile device users to easily plug in their smartphones and tablet devices via six USB ports (including iPhone 4 and 5 ports, and a mini USB port) to get a quick power boost on the go. Goal Zero gave the public its first peek at the setup last year during a test outing in Brooklyn's Dumbo area, a local start-up hub. During that testing phase, the outposts also included Wi-Fi, but these new stations are, for the time being, offered only as power sources.

The initial rollout will start today in select neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Manhattan's Union Square, Hudson River Park and Central Park (during SummerStage), as well as Randall's Island and Governor's Island. Once these stations become more widespread, they could also serve as emergency power sources during disasters like last year's Hurricane Sandy which saw thousands of New Yorkers trolling the streets for outlets to power their devices.