The New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced that the largest community solar project in New York City has been completed and is operational. Located in Brooklyn, 196 households and businesses will receive power from the 1.2-MW solar array.

It was developed by Daroga Power, and the project is fully subscribed with 196 total customers—70% residential customers, 20% small commercial customers, and 10% low- to moderate-income customers.

“Residents and small business owners throughout New York are rapidly embracing community solar as a means to lower their energy costs, reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment,” said Alicia Barton, president and CEO, NYSERDA. “I applaud Daroga Solar for their commitment to this project and the residents and small business owners in Brooklyn who have joined together to embrace renewable energy and support Governor Cuomo’s ambitious clean energy and climate goals.”

NYSERDA, through the NY-Sun program initiative, provided about $850,000 in funding for the solar array, which is 3,325 solar panels on the rooftops in two locations on Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn. Combined, the 1.2-MWd solar array will reduce carbon emissions by 740 metric tons annually, the equivalent of removing 160 cars from the road.

“It’s an exciting time to be a part of the community distributed generation (CDG) evolution, especially in New York. We haven’t scratched the surface of its potential and look forward to being a leader in its development. The more projects developed, the cleaner and greener our city will become,” said David Matt, principal of Daroga Power.

NY-Sun is Governor Andrew Cuomo’s $1 billion initiative to advance the scale-up of solar and move the state closer to having a sustainable, self-sufficient solar industry. Since 2011, solar in New York State has increased more than 1,000%, leveraged nearly $2.8 billion in private investments and employed 12,000 people in solar jobs across the state. Growing activity in CDG is in part due to the evolving value of distributed energy resources (VDER) policies and Cuomo’s NY-Sun initiative, which are driving greater investments in the CDG sector.

More than 84,000 solar installations have been supported by NYSERDA throughout New York to date, with over 5,004 projects currently in the pipeline, which includes 700 MW of community colar. Through June 2018, New York was ranked third nationally in total solar installed. In addition, during the months of July and August 2018, New York completed 80 MW of solar projects—the highest amount completed in two months in the state’s history.

Community solar projects increase access to solar in areas where residents may not own property or have ideal conditions to install solar panels at their location. They are able to subscribe to a community solar project, and subscribed, energy is still delivered through their regular electric provider while the power produced from the community solar array is fed directly back to the electric grid. As a result, the grid is supplied with clean, renewable energy while subscribers get credits on their electric bills. Individuals and families interested in learning more about this project should visit NYSERDA’s community solar webpage.

News item from NYSERDA