Truth About Community Solar in New York City

They have it in Ithaca. Even Rochester. Why is it so difficult to get it in New York City?

Community Solar – accessed through ConEd – is difficult to get in NYC. Why is that?

After all, Community Solar Farms are extremely popular in Upstate New York. However, this is one area where NYC is behind Upstate. We explain why in this post about Community Solar in New York City.

Community Solar in New York City

One of the first Community Solar projects in New York City was on the rooftop of a self-storage company in the Bronx. Called the Altus Bronx Community Solar Farm, this project allowed 200 New Yorkers access to the benefits of Community Solar.

This project is located atop a 100,000-square-foot storage facility near the famous Bronx Zoo. To qualify for membership to the solar farm residents had to live in one of the 5 boroughs of NYC.

This is one of the key features of Community Solar: you support local energy.

Not Your Father’s Solar Panels

Putting up solar panels on roofs is not new. As such NYC has participated in the trend. The Javits Center has the largest rooftop solar installation in New York City. The New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) uses solar panels on train yards and bus depots. Park Slope has a microgrid.

Installing solar panels however requires owning the building. What if you rent?

This is the problem Community Solar solves in New York City. For NYC residents it is a problem of greater relevance than in the suburbs.

According to NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) there are only a hand full of Community Solar facilities in NYC. This is far below the demand for a city of its size and prominence.

Mapdwell is a company which provides state-of-the-art technology to provide an instant assessment of any building’s rooftop potential for solar energy production. According to this company, NYC could produce enough clean electricity to power 1.2 million homes.

So far New York City has only reached 2% of its capacity for generating electricity through rooftop solar panels, according to Mapdwell. It follows that Community Solar in New York City has tremendous potential in the city which never sleeps.

Regulatory Framework Creates the Incentives for Community Solar

On a state level, solar power is just 1.4% of all sources of energy in New York. Not a good thing, given that the State has committed to be 100% carbon-free in energy by 2040 (source).

Even New York City has gotten into the act. In a landmark vote the city passed its own package of bills coined the city’s “Green New Deal” (source).

Officially called the Climate Mobilization Act, the bills set caps for the carbon emissions of buildings in the city. Landlords of these buildings are given until 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – related to the use of energy – by 40%. Those who do not will face large fines.

Social Justice is Solar Access

Some Community Activists consider Community Solar a way to “bring equity in access to renewables.” In fact, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) did a study on the lack of access to rooftop solar in low to moderate income households in the US (source).

The logic is simple. Single family homeownership is necessary to own the roof to install solar panels.

Low-income residents can’t easily buy homes. This is because they find it difficult to have the credit scores and income to qualify for mortgages.

As a result, low-income residents not only miss out on the energy cost savings of solar power; they also miss out on being part of the solution to global warming.

Community Solar solves this problem. It allows low to moderate household’s access to up to a 10% discount on what could be 90% of their electricity bill.

The NREL estimates 60 percent of the generating potential for low- to moderate-income Americans resides in apartment and multifamily buildings, which is coincidentally where a vast majority of lower-income New Yorkers reside.

Everybody Wins

For consumers Community Solar solves the problem of not being able to participate in the energy discounts of solar because they did not own the roof on which solar panels are installed.

For building owners, Community Solar offers the ability to turn empty space on the roof into an additional revenue source. Each roof top Community Solar project leases the area from the building owner. This turns unused space into long-term revenue generating assets.

For small business owners, Community Solar offers access to cheaper power through the discounts applied to the utility bill. On April 19, 2020 new regulations by the state’s Public Service Commission increased the maximum size of a project – to 5 MW.

This meant for the first time that the size of the projects were large enough to support the energy needs of small businesses. This allowed newer installations of Community Solar in New York City to quickly get off the ground with a few key business customers rather than waiting for hundreds of households.

Conclusion

Community Solar has its roots in Minnesota. The idea was that Solar Farms (farmers with solar panels on their property) could be Community assets shared amongst the residents through subscriptions. It was to them the same concept as a co-op.

Surprisingly only a few states have passed the legislation and regulatory changes necessary to allow Community Solar to be economical for the developers of these projects.

In addition to Minnesota and New York, Community Solar is available in Massachusetts, Washington DC, Maryland, Colorado, New Jersey, and Illinois. Pennsylvania and Oregon are currently considering such legislation.

Not having farmland - on which to install solar panels - is not stopping New York City. With the benefits of Community Solar and the availability of rooftops, it is probably just a matter of time before the city’s full capacity in this regard will be taken up. 

Community Solar in New York City is here to stay.