2024 NYC Solar + Storage Summit

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Electrification will drive massive growth in electricity demand in NYC, where our local power supply is dominated by in-City fossil fuel generators. Join this morning conversation with the New York Public Service Commission, NYSERDA and senior leaders from Con Edison and the New York Power Authority to learn how New York’s agencies, utilities, and regulators are progressing in their efforts to meet load growth while reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Over the last decade, NYC has transformed from a sleepy solar market to the hottest rooftop solar market in the Empire State. High electricity rates, Local Law 97, and the recent expansion of the NYC Solar + Storage Property Tax Abatement are important factors, but there is more at play. Join policy experts and local solar industry leaders for a lively discussion about NYC’s burgeoning solar market and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead.

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Join this brief session for an overview of 20 Gigawatts by 2035: Raising New York's Distributed Solar Goal, a new policy proposal to accelerate rooftop and community solar deployment in New York.

NYC has more than one gigawatt of retail energy storage projects in the interconnection queue, including hundreds of megawatts in advanced stages of development. This flurry of development is in response to strong price signals in Con Edison’s Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) tariff, pending NYSERDA funding through New York’s 6 GW Energy Storage Roadmap, and NYC’s recent zoning text amendment to ease storage permitting. Join this discussion on the key challenges and opportunities in NYC’s burgeoning energy storage market, and what policies and programs are needed to convert NYC’s storage potential into operational assets that support grid flexibility and decarbonization.

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2024 is the first compliance year for Local Law 97, NYC’s landmark climate law that regulates carbon emissions for large buildings. In this session, leaders from the Mayor’s Office, real estate, and clean energy sectors will discuss how covered buildings are cost-effectively reducing their emissions with energy efficiency, electrification and distributed solar + storage.

Decarbonizing NYC’s electric grid is central to achieving the statewide CLCPA requirement of 70% renewable electric supply by 2030. In this conversation, senior leaders from the office of the Mayor and Governor will discuss how the City & State are aligning policies, programs and strategic investments to support progress toward CLCPA goals.

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Safety regulations for battery energy storage have evolved tremendously over the last several years, shaping the trajectory of the industry and products on the market. Join this session to learn about key developments, how innovations are making products safer, and how this contributes to our understanding of better design and installation of ESS, with a focus on dense urban environments like NYC.

The Inflation Reduction Act has created unprecedented opportunities for property owners and clean energy developers to leverage federal resources to implement clean energy upgrades. In New York City, state and local programs play an equally important role. In April 2024, the EPA announced $27B in grants toward green banks and toward low-income solar initiatives via Solar for All. Join this panel discussion to hear public and private sector perspectives on how these new investments will support clean energy deployment, what changes and guidance are needed for these programs to be most impactful, and how clean energy developers and property owners can tap into these resources.

Decarbonizing New York’s buildings and electric grid will require a massive, trained workforce. NYC has plans that call for training 400,000 “green collar” workers by 2040, with a focus on supporting individuals from environmentally disadvantaged communities, and NYS’s ambitious climate action strategy is expected to create opportunities for workers that are transitioning into the clean energy economy. This panel will discuss the challenges and opportunities for retraining the existing workforce while preparing those just entering the workforce for emerging clean energy careers.

Electrification is driving electric load growth for the first time in decades, presenting an immense challenge for our aging power system. Expanding the transmission and distribution system to meet 100% of projected load growth for NYC will be tremendously expensive. Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), or aggregations of distributed energy resources, are a cost-effective, flexible alternative. Join this conversation to learn how utilities and clean energy technology companies are deploying VPPs today and what policies, programs and technologies will be needed to scale up VPPs to meet New York’s clean energy goals.

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