Photo Credit: Solar1.org
Last week, GTM Research released the Q1 solar installation numbers, including a state-by-state breakdown in our full report. What about city-by-city?
NYC has seen dramatic growth in installation of solar generation capacity -- almost 65 percent last year alone, increasing to 14 megawatts. But those working on solar in the Big Apple say that growth has come despite, rather than because of, the ease with which it can be done.
Solar project developers throughout the nation face a host of regulatory, finance, and even logistical issues to installing distributed generation capacity. In New York City, these range from restrictive and time-consuming permits -- permitting can take more than half a year -- to safe integration of distributed solar power into an aging grid, to competition for roof space with water towers, heating, ventilation and air conditioning units.
Yet progress is being made. Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC calls for the growth of PV in the city, and CUNY created the NYC Solar Map. Clean Energy Connections, a series of panel discussions on green and renewable energy in NYC, has gathered a group of speakers representing the various factions that must come together to get a solar project installed: installers, financiers, attorneys and community activists.
Tickets are still available if you can join us in New York City, or bookmark this page to tune into the webcast on June 20, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. EDT for a discussion of both the challenges and opportunities of solar power in New York City’s five boroughs.
The panel, hosted by Solar One and NYC ACRE with Greentech Media as the media sponsor, will feature Alison Kling, NYC Solar Coordinator, Sustainable CUNY; Richard Klein, President and founder of Quixotic Systems; Ellen Honigstock, founder of Sustainable Kensington Windsor Terrace; Michael DellaGala, Managing Partner of DG Energy; and Dana Hall, an attorney specializing in clean energy issues. Leave questions for the panelists below, or join in the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #cleannrgx.
Watch the archived version below.