New York
Current State of Affairs
With strong — and growing — state support for solar, New York is well-poised to be a solar leader. The state provides financial resources through two sources: a public goods fund charge (providing about $12 million a year), and through a renewable portfolio standard. On February 25th, the Lt. Governor David Paterson introduced the first findings of his renewable energy task force. That task force made an excellent first crack at 100 MW of solar by 2011.
Well, it is now the Governor’s task force on renewable energy. With an elevation of status for the task force, we think there should be a corresponding elevation in the solar program. An elevation to the tune of 2000 MW of solar by 2020.
We recently expanded the states net metering program (read about the hard won victory on our blog here). In the 2007 edition of Freeing the Grid, the comprehensive report that ranks and grades every state net metering program in the country, New York received a D. In the forth coming edition of the report that grade will be changed to a B. This is due to the expansion of system size limits (up to 2 MW now) and the inclusion of more customer clases like business and non-profit.
Next Steps
We still have work to do. Currently Vote Solar is working with partners and the Public Service commission to bring the interconnection standards up to the same level as the net metering program. This will include a streamlined interconnection process and the removal of costly and redundant procedures that keep PV from achieving cost competitiveness.
But on a larger scale we are still actively promoting and working to achieve a solar program of which all New Yorkers can be proud. We are taking steps to shore up the first part of this program, 100 MW by 2011. But we still think The Empire State can do better: 2000 MW, baby.
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Vote Solar lead for New York is Shaun Chapman.
last updated 10/9/08