Community Solar Comes to New York

Call it one small shovelful of dirt for New York’s Capital District, one giant leap for solar power in New York State and nationwide.

This week, project developers and state energy officials broke ground on the Empire State’s first shared solar project, an offsite solar array that will allow tenants, businesses, and others who don’t have good roof access to get all the benefits of solar without putting panels on their own roofs. The policies that have enabled this first project, and the many more shared renewables projects now in the pipeline across New York State, were created last summer by the New York State Public Service Commission as part of Governor Cuomo’s NY-Sun Initiative, which aims to bring 3 gigawatts of solar power online by 2023. (That’s enough to power 400,000 homes.) They’ll play a crucial part in New York’s plan to get 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and in the state’s Reforming the Energy Vision effort to make New York’s electric system cleaner, more resilient, and more affordable for all New Yorkers.

Programs that promote clean energy in New York are helping state residents and businesses save money on energy, for sure. And not only that: They’re enabling all of us to breathe cleaner air. They’re limiting carbon pollution; they’re creating good local jobs; and, they’re helping make New York’s electric grid more resilient in the face of the increasingly extreme weather that results from climate change. No wonder more and more advocates across the country are pushing states to design and implement policies that allow for shared solar and other shared renewables. (To date, there are just 106 megawatts of the stuff installed nationwide, but the market is poised to boom.)

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