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>.

 

Solar Market Growth

New York City’s solar market has grown exponentially and is poised for continued growth. Market projections based upon ongoing city and state solar initiatives and incentive programs indicate that the New York City solar market could reach 45-70 MW of solar PV capacity by 2015 (Veilleux et al. 2010). Much of this new solar PV capacity is expected in the commercial and public sectors, driven by NYSERDA’s PON 2156 (Competitive Regional Incentive Program), the New York Power Authority’s statewide solar initiative, and New York City’s RFP for solar PV on municipal facilities. This rapid market growth will continue applying downward pressure on the cost of solar in New York City.

 

Costs of solar in NYC

In recent years, the price of installing solar in New York City has dropped steadily. This downward price trend is expected to continue as technology advances, the market grows, and as large commercial and public sector solar energy systems are installed. The cost figures below for NYSERDA-funded solar PV installations do not account for any federal, state, or local incentives, which significantly reduce the cost of installing solar for New York City building owners. For information on NYC solar incentives, please see our NYC Solar Incentive Guides.

 

other industry resources New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA) Solar thermal development lags behind PV, but the New York State Solar Thermal Roadmap, released earlier this year, identifies the roadblocks and creates a path to spur increased development, investment, manufacturing, sales and deployment of solar thermal technologies in the state. An older document more directly related to PV, New York's Solar Road Map 2007, <pdf> provides a reference document for all industry stakeholders. Its objective is to identify the state's specific needs and to recommend innovative solutions to meet the future challengs related to this industry. Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) SEPA's website provides unbiased resources about solar technologies, policies, and programs. National Renewable Energy Lab NREL recently launched a new Renewable Energy Project Finance website. New York State Public Service Commission The New York State Public Service Commission website is a great resource for regulatory information. New York State Energy and Research Development Authority The NYSERDA Power Naturally website has information on renewable energy development in New York State.