Con Edison offered its proposal to the Public Service Commission of New York, seeking to produce 12MW of solar power by the year 2011, broken down into 5MW of 200kW or more from large installations, 5MW produced from smaller installations, primarily for residential or small to medium commercial customers, and an additional 2MW of solar energy will be generated from the company’s facilities in daytime peak-electric use neighbourhoods.
The pilot program, hoping to install solar panels at several facilities already owned by the company, has considered several locations.
o The West 49th Street transmission substation, which has the potential of generating 116kW of solar energy.
o 4 Irving Place, which can potentially power 50kW of solar power.
o Astoria Building 136 located in the Astoria Complex in Queens, which could produce the most solar electricity at 1.65MW.
o At the Mott Haven substation in the Bronx, which could power 56kW of solar energy.
Con Ed estimates the costs of the entire project to be anywhere from US$20-25 million, for direct installation costs, customer subsidies, and first-year administrative costs.