The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has announced its allocations of US$200 million to expand access to affordable solar energy across New York state.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced the funding as part of the FY2027 budget and is expected to support more than 565MW of new solar installations.
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The funding framework divides funds into three target categories, with a fourth, of approximately US$33 million, designated as “flexible market funding”. This will be allocated where demand is strongest and support most needed, the organisation says. The main three project categories are as follows:
| Sector | Funding | Capacity | Purpose |
| Large commercial and community | US$116 million | 450MW | Commercial and community projects of larger than 1MW |
| Midsize rooftop | US$31 million | 75MW | Midsize commercial, governmental and multi-family deployments |
| Residential | US$20 million | 40MW | Projects for low- and moderate-income homeowners |
The US$200 million total will be administered by NYSERDA through the NY-Sun Program. NYSERDA says NY-Sun’s solar projects to date, including community projects, now power more than 1.3 million homes and businesses. It says the distributed solar market has generated approximately US$12.3 billion in private investment and in excess of 16,000 jobs in New York state.
To develop the detail of its funding framework, NYSERDA consulted solar developers, installers and others in the industry and community, and analysed project economics and deployment trends. Both the large and midsize solar programmes will prioritise projects on carports, brownfields, landfills, floating systems and agrivoltaics (agriPV), with an overall emphasis on projects in the built environment.
Assembly member Didi Barrett, chair of the Assembly Energy Committee said: “I was proud to pass the ASAP (Accelerate Solar for Affordable Power) Act in this year’s state budget, and secure US$200 million for the NY-Sun Program to help build on the progress we’ve made in expanding distributed solar.
“The diverse incentives in today’s announcement—from agrivoltaics to parking canopies—will lower utility bills and create good-paying clean energy jobs, while helping us reach our climate goals. I thank governor Hochul and NYSERDA for their efforts to get this funding out the door!”
As US federal policy steps away from renewables, individual states are addressing their populations’ needs for affordable and reliable power. Among them, New York is notable for its focus on community solar deployment, which included the passage of the ASAP act earlier this year that aims to provide 20GW of distributed capacity by 2035.
