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Solarize NYC
To further support the City's goal of installing one gigawatt of solar capacity citywide by 2030, the NYC Solar Partnership has launched the first round of Solarize NYC campaigns with WE ACT in Northern Manhattan and NYC 2030 District in Downtown Brooklyn. The campaigns will focus on affordable housing cooperatives, small businesses and 1 to 4 family homes. WE ACT released a Request for Proposals (RFP) on July 14 for its "Solar Uptown Now" campaign; an RFP for the Downtown Brooklyn program is expected to be released shortly. Stay informed about Solarize NYC by by sending an email to [email protected] to join the NYC Solar Installer Roundtable.
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The NYC Solar Partnership recently closed applications for communities to host Round 2 Solarize NYC campaigns. Keep an eye for our next round, coming in the Fall of 2017. Led by Sustainable CUNY, the NYC Solar Partnership was formed in 2006 with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Mayor's Office of Sustainability as partner organizations. With policy and funding support from the City, the NYC Solar Partnership works to expand access to clean, reliable, and affordable solar energy for all New Yorkers and promote a robust marketplace for solar energy in New York City.
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VDER Phase One Moves Forward
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The NY Public Service Commission's (PSC) Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) Phase One order moves away from net metering and allows for a new valuation model for Distributed Generation Resources that more accurately recognizes the benefits they provide to the grid and to society.
Critically, it takes the location and environmental benefits of the resource into account, and 'stacks' them along with other benefits. The PSC required New York's investor-owned utilities to file draft implementation proposals by May 1, 2017 to outline how they would implement the utility portion of the VDER stack. The utility proposals, which may be
viewed here
are subject to review and will evolve in consultation with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the PSC. A Public Opinion period is now open. Through Reforming the Energy Vision, the PSC is helping NY move to a 21st century grid, with transparency being a key element of the VDER Order. Sustainable CUNY is working with stakeholders to develop tools to help installers and their customers understand the implications and benefits of the new order.
The timeline for rolling out VDER is as follows:
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NYCHA Rolls Out Public Purpose Shared Solar
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and Sustainable CUNY hosted a webinar
on July 27 to introduce community organizations to a new initiative aimed at expanding solar access and green-collar job opportunities to low and moderate income households. Known as Public Purpose Shared Solar (PPSS), the program would make several hundred NYCHA rooftops available to community organizations that team up with solar developers who install community shared solar systems targeted to low and moderate income customers and employ NYCHA residents. NYCHA expects to solicit proposals for PPSS projects from interested community organizations and developers early in 2018. PPSS is part of NYCHA's overall commitment to install 25 megawatts of solar capacity on its public housing rooftops and parking lots by 2026.
NYCHA Public Purpose Shared Solar Webinar
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SolSmart
Do you know a municipality in New York State that could use some help in reducing the soft costs of going solar? Sustainable CUNY's NY Solar Ombudsmen are now also New York State
SolSmart
Technical Providers, a new national designation program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative. The program is designed to provide technical support as well as recognize communities that have taken key steps to address local barriers to solar energy. Communities can apply to receive technical assistance in a six month intensive program and work on a point system to qualify as a Bronze, Silver or Gold SolSmart designation by removing the identified solar market barriers.
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Sustainable CUNY established a strategic platform and NY Solar Ombudsmen over a decade ago and led the work through the NYC Solar Partnership (CUNY, Mayor's Office, NYC Economic Development Corporation) to streamline the solar installation process in NYC. As a result, NYC immediately received a Gold designation and has the most points of any City in the country, with Sustainable CUNY's platform now being used to help other urban environments. The New York metro now ranks fifth in the nation for the number of solar jobs, with 10,815 jobs in the metropolitan statistical area.
Contact
[email protected]
for more information on SolSmart.
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CUNY "Charges" Ahead on Energy Storage Soft Costs Initiative
Sustainable CUNY has partnered with Meister Consultants Group (MCG) and technical advisors DNV-GL under a comprehensive NYSERDA-sponsored initiative to reduce the soft costs of energy storage in NY State by at least 33%. CUNY's work is part of a larger effort combining the work of NY-BEST, Cadmus Group, and ERS, Inc. and takes aim at the permitting and siting piece of the puzzle. In partnership with DNV-GL, the first phase of the effort will assist 'Authorities Having Jurisdiction' (AHJs) with developing permitting guidance, starting off here in NYC.
Weekly working meetings consisting of FDNY code and safety directors, CUNY, DNV GL, and NYSERDA outlined
areas of consideration that must be addressed in order to develop clear permitting which include
Fire Protection, Cascading Protection, Lifecycle Management, Ventilation & Exhaust, Status Communication, Signage, and Siting. This work will provide clarity to the marketplace for what is required in order to successfully deploy an advanced storage system. CUNY looks forward to working with MCG later this year on the next phase of this effort, to bring the results of this permit development work to a statewide audience of both AHJs as well as energy storage vendors through trainings, workshops, and technical assistance.
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NYC Grid Ready Launched at Summit
There are more than one million buildings in the five boroughs of New York City, but
determining how many of these rooftops are candidates for large scale solar systems
and how it would affect the grid is a challenge.
The NYC Grid Ready Solar project provides information on potential grid constraints for large solar installations. CUNY, working with Consolidated Edison, analyzed the solar potential and technical risk factors for grid interconnection for all NYC buildings capable of hosting PV systems over 200 kW-AC. A new layer on the NY Solar Map shows whether buildings may or may not face interconnection issues, as well as a guide to the order of magnitude of costs for typical mitigation strategies.
nysolarmap.com
The NYC Grid Ready Solar project is supported by the NY-Sun Initiative and led by Sustainable CUNY in collaboration with Consolidated Edison, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
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DG Hub Builds & Tracks, the Pathway to Storage
The
Smart DG Hub NYC Resilient Solar Roadmap
, published in March and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and NYSERDA, introduces a series of strategies for addressing the ke
y barriers to solar+storage in an urban environment in the categories of hardware, software, economics and policy in an effort to increase the deploym
ent of resilient solar installations.
Sustainable CUNY is utilizing the same platform that is helping to remove the barriers to solar, to now remove the barriers to solar+storage. The
Roadmap Tracker
is a tool now on the NY Solar Map and Portal that is tracking the progress of the many recommendations outlined in the Resilient Solar Roadmap.
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Solar Ombudsmen Case Study
Building Identification Numbers
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CHALLENGE
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SOLUTION
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IMPACT
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Requirement for solar permit applications to be filed per BIN, which in many cases represent a single tenant unit, even if only one solar system was proposed for the overall structure resulting in prohibitive costs for single properties comprised of multiple BINS.
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Sustainable CUNY worked with DOB who now accepts one solar permit application for a stand-alone structure, when under a single Borough, Block and Lot (BBL) and owner. Details in the permitting section in the NYC Installer FAQ's on the NY Solar Map and Portal.
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Changing the BIN Requirement reduces red tape which lowers the costs for installing solar for this enormous NYC sector of multi tenant properties, offering clean energy generation to those tenants that cannot site solar for themselves.
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"Sustainable CUNY's solar ombudsmen brought together the decision-makers at the NYC DOB, FDNY, & the Mayor's Office to help us overcome a problem that we did not have a solution for. CUNY's team navigated through the proper channels and achieved what no one else could - a simple and straightforward resolution - and they did so in record time." -Stephen Owen, Founder, Sol Alliance
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Solar Ballast Installations in NYC
NYC DOB has officially adopted amendments to 105-02 of the Rules of the City of New York regarding the use of ballast in solar systems. The result removes the limitation of ballast used on grade level installations, or ground mounted systems, and reinforces that ballast must be fully contained (i.e. not loose) in any allowable use case. The prohibition of ballast on rooftops over 100' remains in place.
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Original Text:
Drawings showing the foundation and/or anchorage of the solar electric generating system. Ballast shall be prohibited for grade-level installations and for installations one hundred (100) feet or higher above grade. For rooftop installations less than one hundred (100) feet above grade, ballast shall be fully contained.
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Amended Text:
Drawings showing the foundation and/or anchorage of the solar electric generating system. Ballast is prohibited for installations one hundred (100) feet or higher above grade. For rooftop installations less than one hundred (100) feet above grade, and grade-level installations, ballast must be fully contained and must comply with the requirements for aggregate in Chapter 15 of the New York City Building Code.
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NY Solar+Storage Summit
Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul opened the 11
th
annual NY Solar (+Storage) Summit, convened by Sustainable CUNY of the City University of New York at John Jay College in Manhattan. The Summit featured a progress update on the innovative steps the Empire State is taking to transition to a 21
st
Century Grid. New York's utility leaders highlighted onstage the key ways their grids are integrating renewable energy and storage as a result of Governor Andrew Cuomo's "Reforming the Energy Vision" plan.
Media Release and Presentations
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Con Ed, DG Collaborative Report
Con Edison has completed a six-month process to enhance the transparency around interconnection procedures, at the request of the Public Service Commission (PSC). CUNY and the City of New York were pleased to be part of the process to enhance clarity and outline expectations for the installer community around how Con Ed reviews project submittals, and their process for testing and inspections once projects have been constructed.
Con Ed DG site
Con Ed has developed
guides for installers
, for solar PV and fuel cells. There was considerable discussion around the value of smooth coordination between customer project managers (CPMs) and installers seeking to interconnect to Con Ed infrastructure.
The collaborative signals Con Ed's understanding that DG installers are an important stakeholder as they evolve to be distribution system platform providers under REV. We look forward to seeing more progress from Con Ed to clarify processes and receive feedback from the stakeholder community.
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FYI Help for LMI Projects
Did you know that the NYSERDA MW Block Incentive doubles for projects that get solar to Low and Moderate Income (LMI) communities? Need technical assistance? NYSERDA has a PON to support development activity that gets solar to LMI communities. Think about how to expand your business model, and get grant support. Let us know how we can help
PON 3414 Affordable Solar Predevelopment and Technical Assistance
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NYC Solar Snapshot
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Summary of Bulletin Resources
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Sustainable CUNY:
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NY Solar Map and Portal
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NY Solar+Storage Summit
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Con Edison
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The NYC Solar Installer Roundtable
NYC Solar Installer Roundtable is a forum for exchanging information, workshop opportunities, RFP/ RFI notices, and industry updates. Join the NYC Solar Roundtable, the NYS Solar Installer Roundtable or the Smart DG Hub Roundtable by sending an email to
[email protected]
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Calendar of Events
Coming in September: Interconnection Workshop
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NYSolar Smart is a strategic effort led by Sustainable CUNY of the City University of New York that supports Federal, State and NYC solar initiatives to strategically remove barriers to large scale solar deployment.
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See what's happening on our social sites:
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