NY-Sun Initiative Powers More Solar for NY Businesses

Last week, Governor Cuomo announced an additional $28.6 million of awards under the NY-Sun initiative, which will facilitate the deployment of another 33.6 MW of distributed solar capacity across the entire state, enough new solar generation to power over 4,300 individual homes in New York. And by producing clean electricity onsite - where the energy will be consumed - these solar systems serve to enhance grid resiliency in addition to the more obvious environmental benefits.This announcement represented the final round of NYSERDA’s Project Opportunity Notice (PON) 2589, and these awards will provide funding for 29 individual projects, including 10 projects in New York City. In many cases, NY businesses are using these NY-Sun awards to “go solar” and enhancing their operating profitability and reducing their exposure to future electricity price increases as a result.The NY-Sun Initiative has now provided awards to support over 200 MW of new solar capacity. Importantly, the incentive amounts per watt have declined significantly, from over $1.13 per watt to $0.77 per watt in this most recently announced auction round.The PowerFlex team is very excited with the continued development of the NY solar market, and while NY is still a much smaller market relative to some of its neighbors (i.e. New Jersey and Massachusetts), the state has laid out an aggressive ten year plan under the leadership of Governor Cuomo, including the recent launch of the innovative NY Green Bank. We have been active participants in every round of the NY-Sun Initiative to date, and look forward to continuing our involvement in this dynamic public/private program as NY evolves into a solar leader.