NYS Solar: NYSolar Smart
NYSolar Smart is a state-wide collaborative effort led by CUNY designed to reduce the non-hardware soft costs of installing solar throughout New York with support in part from the Governor's NY-Sun Initiative. NYSolar Smart will make available to interested NYS jurisdictions the tools and support to reduce administrative costs associated with solar, which can increase the expense of a PV system by up to 40%. Contact a New York State Solar Ombudsman
New York State Unified Solar Permit
CUNY, in a collaborative effort, conducted a state-wide survey addressing planning and zoning, financing options, and interconnection and net metering, in addition to permitting processes related to solar.
Working with NYSERDA, NYPA and municipalities across the state, CUNY developed a streamlined solar permit form for small-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems. NYS Unified Solar Permit <pdf>
Municipalities that adopt the unified permit and procedures are eligible for between $2,500 and $5,000, depending on population, through the New York State Cleaner, Greener Communities program to implement the new procedures. Additional information can be found on NY-Sun Initiative Community Tools.
NYS unified solar permit and incentive webinar presentation <pdf> September 2013
Background
With more than 18,000 jurisdictions in the U.S. and little or no standardized national or state solar permitting processes, a wide variety of procedures exists. New York is no exception. Many installation companies face frustration with the lack of uniformity, layers of paperwork and different permitting processes across the many jurisdictions in which they do business, which contributes to higher costs. In turn, local agencies and utilities struggle to accommodate a growing industry while dealing with a lack of staff and often limited coordination between agencies and utilities.
Since 2007 Sustainable CUNY has led, on behalf of NYC, comprehensive federal solar initiatives designed to support large scale solar energy market growth in NYC and is now expanding it's efforts across the State. The result to-date in NYC is a tenfold increase in solar production, a quadrupling of solar installation companies, and the innovative use of technologies such as GIS and LiDAR to create the world’s largest interactive solar map for NYC’s one million rooftops.
Further, as climate change continues to dramatically impact New York, Sustainable CUNY is working with its partners to incorporate solar power into emergency and resiliency planning. Smart Distributed Generation Hub- Emergency Power
For more information please contact the NYS Solar Ombudsmen.