Solar power in New York State grew more than 300% between 2011 and 2014, according to the office of Governor Andrew Cuomo.
A total of 314.48 MW of solar facilities was installed across the state as of December 2014.
Solar capacity tripled, quadrupled or quintupled in every region of the state other than Long Island, which has more installations than any other region. In addition, numbers of projects at least doubled in every region. The largest increase in percentage of megawatts was in the North Country, followed by the Finger Lakes, Central New York and New York City.
In addition, as of May 2015, more than 304 MW of solar photovoltaic was under contract, not yet installed, with an additional 65.6 MW of applications accepted, not yet contracted.
The governor attributed the growth to a combination of factors, including the NY-Sun initiative, decline in solar electric component prices, and growth in the number of installer businesses marketing solar electric directly to consumers.
The NY-Sun Initiative is part of the Governor’s Reforming the Energy Vision program, which is revamping the state’s energy sector.
Reforming the Energy Vision includes the proposed Clean Energy Fund, a $5 billion investment over the next 10 years in clean energy programs. The Clean Energy Fund encompasses four portfolios: Market Development, Innovation and Research, NY Green Bank and NY-Sun.
In 2014, the governor made a commitment of nearly $1 billion to NY-Sun, which aims to deploy public funds to provide support for solar projects by decreasing balance-of-system costs -- except for the cost of solar modules and inverters -- through streamlined permitting, reduced acquisition costs, and training of code officials and first responders.
“The growth of my PV installation company has been tremendous over the past seven years, and we have been nearly doubling or tripling our growth in sales and installation capacity every year over the past five years,” Kevin Bailey, owner of High Peaks Solar in Wynantskill, said in a prepared statement.
