By Mark Hallum
Queens is really letting the sunshine in, with the fastest-growing solar-power supply in the city, according to an industry research group.
There were 1,125 installations of solar arrays in Queens over the past year, according to Sunvago, a solar research firm — a 305-percent leap over the year before.
The next closest contender was Brooklyn, where installations doubled year on year.
The Sunvago study not only found the popularity of solar rising, but also that the price of solar power is dropping.
The price per watt decreased from $4.80 to $4.11 between the start of 2015 and the end of 2016 — a drop of nearly 14 percent — and that decline is before subsidies and incentives are added in.
Mayor Bill de Blasio celebrated the advancement of solar power throughout the city in September during Climate Week, announcing solar capacity had quadrupled since the beginning of his administration, from 25 megawatts, to 96 MW. More than 8,000 solar units were installed citywide in 2016 and there are an estimated 2,700 new solar jobs in the city, the mayor said.
“As part of our OneNYC plan, and in order to meet our 80 x 50 goal, we made a commitment to install 100 MW of solar power on public buildings and 250 MW on private buildings by 2025,” de Blasio said. “I am happy to announce we’re on track to meet that goal, having quadrupled solar capacity since 2013. This rapid progress has inspired us to expand that goal to 1,000 MW of solar power citywide, which has the potential to power more than 250,000 homes. There’s only one New York, and we must do everything we can to ensure it’s protected for future generations.”
Queens has seen 1,703 new installations since 2014, according to the city, and is capable of producing 18.5 MW of energy.
Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) is chairman of the Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection.
“I am proud that we have reached a total of more than 8,000 solar installations [city-wide] in 2016, which will bring us closer toward our goal of reducing carbon emissions 80percent by 2050,” he said in September.
At the state level, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has set similar goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent, generate 50 percent of electricity from renewable sources and decrease energy consumption in buildings by 23 percent by 2050 through his ‘Reforming the Energy Vision’ program.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
