On Monday, April 13, from 12:00 to 1:00 P.M., NYCP’s Renewable Energy Speakers Series hosted Jonathan Cohen, the Policy Director for the New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA). Jonathan explained solar legislation currently under consideration in Albany, including the Accelerate Solar for Affordable Power (ASAP) ACT (Senate S6570A). New York surpassed its 6 GW goal more than a year ahead of schedule, in October 2024! The state is now well on track to meet the Governor’s expanded goal of 10 GW by 2030, with over 3.4 GW under development. With this rapid installation of distributed solar, it is time to increase the goal to 20 GW by 2035. Listen to the recording to understand why New York should pass the bill this session and how we can do it.
There’s over 5 BESS projects being considered in Ulster County and the greater Hudson Valley region. Watch and hear from Dr. Jefferey Seidman, Vassar College, and Dan Murray, Energy Safety Consultant, and retired Chief in Charge of HazMat at FDNY; they will discuss how BESS systems work, why they’re needed, and what they mean for our communities.
This recording is from NYCP’s renewable energy speaker series, Monday, March 9, from 12 to 1 P.M., with our special guests Claudia Villar-Leeman from NY-BEST and Cora Stryker from Bright Saver.
Claudia is the Senior Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST). She explained how our electricity grid works, why energy storage is critical to supporting reliability while keeping electricity bills down, and recent initiatives to support storage in the state, including a recent bill that would have large BESS projects reviewed by the Department of Public Service: S.5506 (Kavanagh)/A.8378 (Levenberg).
Cora Stryker is the cofounder of Bright Saver, the first and only nonprofit dedicated to making plug-in solar accessible to all Americans. Cora explained plug-in (“balcony”) solar, told us about the Solar Up Now New York (SUNNY Act). We also learned how to encourage our legislators to support policies that build a cleaner Empire State.
Learn how NYS can greatly ramp up solar power generation to provide inexpensive, abundant, and reliable electricity on a large scale. Dr. Richard Perez will be presenting his research about how solar power has the technical capabilities to achieve this goal and what is needed to ensure that this transformation will be successful.
We will also be very briefly discussing the new proposed regulations from the NYS Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) about siting major renewable energy facilities, including for solar power, and next steps in this process.
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Tune in for information on New York’s community solar and hydroelectric projects, updates on the Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER), and the policies needed to move forward to improve solar energy in New York. Our speakers will be available to answer questions and provide information on what you can do to get involved in the renewable revolution!
Speakers:
Juan Parra, Solar One Community Solar Program Manager
Sarah Bower, Natural Power Group Co-Owner
Cal Trumann, SunCommon Solar Community Organizer
Emmett Smith, Northern Power Light Founder
Jessica Azulay, Alliance for a Green Economy Executive Director
What Will it Take to Achieve New York’s Renewable Energy Goals? Join us for an online teach-in with Anne Reynolds, the Executive Director of Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY) to find out how large-scale renewable energy is vital to ending our reliance on fossil fuels. Reynolds will speak to the challenges that wind and solar project developers face in our state and the next steps for New York’s renewable future.