Sustainable CUNY

Background

As the largest urban center in the United States, New York City requires a significant amount of electricity to power its economy and infrastructure. While growth in New York City’s annual electricity consumption has increased steadily since 2000, annual summer peak electricity demand has grown at a rate nearly seven times as fast, and with greater variability (NYISO 2010). New York City is required to generate 80% of its electric power within city limits to meet grid reliability standards, and relies almost exclusively on fossil fuel power plants to do so. However, recent studies have shown that local renewable energy sources could supply over a third of the city’s energy within the next 20 years (Rickerson 2006), much of it from solar energy. As a peak coincident energy source, solar PV production offsets some of the City’s most expensive energy, and plays an increasingly important role in New York’s energy mix. In 2007, Mayor Bloomberg announced PlaNYC 2030, an ambitious plan to reduce New York City’s carbon footprint 30% by 2030. Growing New York City’s solar market to realize its vast solar potential will help achieve this goal while providing benefits to the electrical distribution system, the economy, and the local environment,

CUNY has been actively supporting the New York City solar market since 2006. For more information on solar in New York City, see CUNY’s series of reports, New York City’s Solar Energy Future

 

NYC Solar Reports

In "The Integration of Solar Energy into Emergency Planning", the NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and a consultant, CH2MHill, surveyed the most relevant technologies for incorporating solar into emergency uses.

BrightPower provided an insightful analysis of how a real-time pricing tariff would impact the payback of NYC solar PV installations in their report titled "Solar Real Time Pricing: Is Real-Time Pricing Beneficial to Solar PV in New York City?"

A highly anticipated report, "Interconnecting PV on New York City's Secondary Network Distribution System," was published on December 31, 2009. This report is the result of a year-long collaboration between NREL, Con Edison, and the New York City Solar America City Partnership. This report describes the technical and administrative barriers, as well as the potential solutions, to interconnecting PV in New York City.

From March through April of 2010, Sustainable CUNY interviewed local solar professionals to identify the barriers to solar in the city, and possible solutions to these challenges. The results of these surveys, summarized in this report, enabled the New York City Solar America City Partnership to target resources and make policy recommendations to most effectively address these barriers and accelerate New York City’s solar market. NYC Solar America City 2010 Installer Survey Results <pdf>.

community Solar

There are many residents and businesses in this city of 1 million buildings – and 1 million roofs– that are unable to participate in NYC’s PV market. First of all, the almost 2 million rental households in the five boroughs don’t have ownership over their own roofs. Secondly, many roofs are either too shaded or don’t have enough space to make the economics work. Lastly, even if a building does have anideal roof for solar, the upfront capital costs can be prohibitive. These barriers are not unique to New York City, and over the last few years various “Community Solar”models have sprung up around the country to enable greater access to solar for those who can’t install PV on their own rooftops. CUNY, together with our Solar America City partners conducted the NYC Community Solar  Report <pdf> to determine ideal models for NYC. 

Solar Market Growth

New York City’s solar market has grown exponentially and is poised for continued growth. This rapid market growth will continue applying downward pressure on the cost of solar in New York City.