New York’s Distributed Solar Capacity Reaches 4 Gigawatts Driven by NY-Sun Incentive Program

New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Sept. 21 declared four gigawatts of distributed solar have been installed across the state. Community, residential, small commercial and industrial projects have been mounted, capable of providing enough electricity to supply more than 710,000 homes. Distributed solar power generation refers to technologies that produce electricity from solar energy near the point of use.

The release of the NY-Sun Initiative has led the cost of solar in New York to decline by 70 percent as solar utilisation has expanded by nearly 2,900 percent across the state. The NY-Sun Initiative presents financial incentives to install solar panels for residential, nonpresidential, and large commercial and industrial projects and has so far driven $6.4 billion in private investment and created more than 12,000 jobs across the state.

New York is set to surpass its aim to mount six gigawatts of distributed solar by 2025 and strive promptly towards their goal of 10 gigawatts by 2030. The state’s progression from three to four gigawatts of distributed solar fittings was the speediest gigawatt-to-gigawatt expansion to date, taking the state marginally more than 12 months to accomplish. The bulk of the latest distributed solar has been endorsed by more than $289 million in NY-Sun incentives that leveraged $1.5 billion in private investment.

Governor Hochul also highlighted the Javits Center, which houses Manhattan’s largest single rooftop solar array. The project, a public-private partnership of Javits Center, New York Power Authority, and Siemens Industry, consists of 1,400 solar panels and a 3.5-megawatt battery storage system.

New York’s achievement has been propelled mostly by community solar, an innovative business model designed to deliver the benefits of solar, including no upfront costs or participation fees, to New York consumers who are often unable to install solar on their property. Moreover, the state’s NY-Sun initiative has assisted the fitting of solar for 166,088 New York homes or businesses covering every county in New York with Long Island, Mid-Hudson, and the Capital Region having the highest installed solar.

The swift implementation of distributed solar across the state will be further enhanced with the extended and expanded federal Investment Tax Credit for solar and other clean energy technologies that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.