There’s a lot of sunbeam power about to shine over the Capital Region. Earlier this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the NY-Sun initiative would be distributing almost $100 million in funding for large solar electric projects across the state, including 18 project sites in the Capital Region. The funding will increase the amount of solar installed and in the pipeline by 68 percent over 2013, further advancing the state to its goal of a sustainable, self-sufficient solar industry.
“New York is quickly becoming a national leader in renewable energy by building a competitive solar industry, and today’s award recipients are an example of how that progress continues to grow,” he said in a press release.
The 18 recipients in the Capital Region include two in Albany County, two in Rensselaer County, six in Saratoga County, and one in Schenectady County, and encompassing the Town of Halfmoon, Environment One Corp. in Niskayuna, and Mohawk Fine Paper in Cohoes and Emma Willard School in Troy. Many of the sites receiving funding will use remote net metering, which allows eligible renewable energy systems owners that produce more energy than they consume at one location annually to accrue credits that can be used to offset other electric accounts under their name.
In addition, proposed project size continues to increase steeply, more than doubling from the kilowatts a year ago. This will result in 1.6 times more solar energy generated per taxpayer dollar than before.
The new capacity, which is planned for 142 project sites, was obtained through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s Competitive PV program, which has been working to stimulate the market for systems larger than 200 kilowatts for four years. A total of $94 million in renewable funding for these projects leverages private investment of $375 million in new PV power infrastructure projects.
NY-Sun is a public-private partnership to drive growth in the solar industry and make solar technology more affordable. Since NY-Sun was launched in 2012, more solar electric has been installed, or is under contract, than was installed in the previous decade.
“As we recognize Climate Week, this is a significant step forward in our goal of creating a better place for New Yorkers to live and work, and I look forward to seeing these projects contribute to a cleaner environment,” Cuomo said at the announcement.