The biggest barriers to expanding clean solar energy production for New Yorkers are regulatory barriers and the need to increase compensation for distributed solar generation, according to a report released this month by the New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA).
The report, “Realizing the Potential for Community Solar in New York State: Benefits, Barriers, and Solutions,” looks at the challenges facing community and residential solar projects in the Empire State.
Statewide barriers to community solar development and deployment include arbitrary constraints to connect to the grid and the associated costs to upgrade the distribution grid, incentive pullbacks and uncertainty related to compensation for retail solar projects.
The report details the impressive growth in New York’s community solar since its inception in 2015 and provides policymakers with recommendations for expanding dispatchable solar deployment.
As of December 2020, 371 community solar projects have come online in New York, comprising 497 MW of capacity. Nearly 90 percent of that capacity was installed in 2019 and 2020.
Check out the NYSEIA report’s executive summary and download the full report here.