2026 New York Solar + Storage Summit Recap
Hundreds gathered for NYSEIA's annual event to gain professional insights and chart the path forward for solar and energy storage in New York!
Last week NYSEIA brought together ~600 industry professionals from the public and private sectors for our annual Solar + Storage Summit at the Albany Capital Center!
On October 13th, we kicked off the first day of the Summit. Alongside our annual in-person members-only policy briefing and strategy session, we had programming for C&I solar and storage developers and residential solar businesses with presentations on community engagement, building efficient businesses, and project development strategies. Following the afternoon of programming, we held an opening reception with drinks, food, and engaging conversations and networking!
Dan Montante welcomes attendees on October 14th
On October 14th, NYSEIA Board President Dan Montante welcomed everyone and spoke about the expanded role that distributed energy is playing in New York’s energy system, highlighting the need for us to bring new supply online quickly to meet rising demand for power. Everyone leaned forward in their seats when NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris took the stage to deliver a keynote address, and to announce an investment framework for $200 million awarded to the NY-Sun program by the FY2027 New York State Budget. The historic investment is administered through the State’s most successful clean energy program, NY-Sun, includes enhanced support for solar that minimizes land use impacts and supports affordable solar energy statewide. The much-needed good news elevated the spirits of conference attendees, creating a palpable buzz as contractors and developers discussed the opportunities the investment framework would unlock.
Doreen Harris delivers her Keynote address
Following this announcement, Noah Ginsburg from NYSEIA moderated a conversation with David Sandbank from NYSERDA and Zaid Ashai from Nexamp focused on the growing importance of distributed energy resources for New York’s grid. As public and private-sector leaders, David and Zaid brought different perspectives to the conversation, but there was a unifying theme – distributed solar and energy storage have scaled, and are now critical grid infrastructure for delivering affordable and reliable energy to power New York’s economy. The conversation was at the 40,000 foot view, but Zaid also zoomed in on critical details, like streamlining the process of securing easements for solar and storage interconnections in NY.
Noah Ginsburg moderates a conversation with Zaid Ashai and David Sandbank
Next, Keith Martin from Norton Rose Fulbright delivered a presentation on navigating Federal Tax Policy in 2027 and beyond. Amongst an ever-changing landscape, Keith Martin laid out critical considerations for solar and storage developers to comply with federal policy, as well as recent trade actions affecting the supply chain. NYSEIA offers Keith a tip of the hat for making complex subject matter clear, and occasionally even funny!
After Keith’s presentation, NYSEIA’s Board of Directors and Staff took the stage to present a Solar Champion Award to the former President and CEO of SEIA, Abigail Hopper. The award celebrated Abby Hopper for a “decade of strong and transformative leadership for America’s solar and energy storage industry.” After receiving the award, Abby delivered a powerful address highlighting how far our industry has come, and the importance of investing in relationships to drive continued progress.
NYSEIA's Board and staff present Abigail Hopper with the Solar Champion Award
At 11am, we had a coffee and networking break before splitting into three stages with panels on getting to COD for C&I Solar, Meter Socket Adapters (coming soon to the Empire State!), and Challenges and Opportunities for Community-Scale Energy Storage. Following this first set of panels, the networking lunch began, where Public Service Commissioner Radina Valova delivered a powerful keynote address, and bravely took audience Q&A, which she handled with the skill and grace that only an experienced classroom teacher could.
Networking at the Trade Show, which was open for the full day on October 14th!
After lunch, multistage programming resumed, featuring a panel on Challenges and Opportunities for Residential Solar and Storage, Unlocking Onsite C&I Solar and Storage, and Maximizing Host Community Benefits from Solar and Storage. The residential panel highlighted the very real challenges that New York-based contractors are navigating after the phaseout of the 25D credit, and focused on the opportunity to drive continued progress by leveraging the commercial ITC and increasing energy storage attachment rates. The onsite C&I conversation featured speakers whose companies are deploying commercial solar Upstate and on Long Island, multifamily solar in NYC, and working to advance safe indoor energy storage solutions to support behind-the-meter solutions. The Host Community Benefits conversation got a bit spicy, with real debate about how to balance home rule and the critical need to build energy infrastructure (we salute the New York Association of Towns Executive Director Chris Koetzle for bravely taking the stage with solar and storage developers and thank Dan Spitzer of Hodgson Russ for his skillful moderation). In the Capital Room, Doug Warden from Snyder & Snyder gave a presentation on legal precedent for BESS permitting followed by a presentation from Glenn Laga from Commercial Solar Panel Recycling.
The next afternoon session featured panels on Rate Design Evolution for Standalone BESS – a hot topic down in Con Edison territory, Virtual Power Plants – a hot topic on Long Island and hopefully in NYC (pending a breakthrough for residential BESS permitting), and the Market Outlook for Community Solar. The community solar outlook conversation started with a discussion of the many challenges to development, and reflected on the contraction of the market over the last few years, before pivoting into a more upbeat conversation about solutions to make New York a growth market for community solar once again, including flexible interconnection, rate design modernization, and permitting reform.
Jonathan Cohen moderates a panel on virtual power plants
After a networking break, the final round of concurrent programming got rolling. The main stage featured a panel on Solar + Storage as Affordability Tools, where leaders from industry and advocates discussed the opportunity to lower bills for New Yorkers by scaling up distributed energy deployment. The first meeting room featured a panel on Beneficial Siting for Solar PV, including parking canopies, agrivoltaics, floating solar, and solar on brownfields – sectors that will enjoy expanded support based on NYSERDA’s announcement re: the $200M investment from earlier in the day. The second meeting room held a panel titled Interconnection in Focus, which addressed near-term tactical changes that are needed to streamline interconnection (easements came up again!) and a focus on flexible interconnection, which has emerged as a promising solution to unlock gigawatts of cost-effective hosting capacity for community solar Upstate and community BESS Downstate.
Kate Tohme moderates the "Interconnection in Focus" panel
The afternoon closed out with remarks from NYSEIA’s Executive Director, Noah Ginsburg, before concluding with a networking happy hour sponsored by the New York State Laborers Organizing Fund (LiUNA).
The 2026 NY Solar + Storage Summit would not have been possible without our generous sponsors. We express our utmost gratitude to NYSERDA for being our presenting sponsor, and Greenspark Solar for being our headline sponsor. We thank Carson Power for being our lanyard sponsor, Montante Solar for being our all-day coffee sponsor, Couch White for sponsoring breakfast, Kendall Sustainable Infrastructure for sponsoring the tabletop flower arrangements, and Solar Simplified for sponsoring the opening reception on the first day. We thank our Gold sponsors, Greentech Renewables, Core Development Group, SAX, Anza, Sunrun, and Hodgson Russ, and our Silver sponsors Norwich Solar, Edwards & Company, Supreme Industries, and LaBella. And we want to express our gratitude to the Kilowatt sponsors, exhibitors, the dozens of expert speakers and presenters, and for all of the attendees who made this event so memorable. Last but not least, we want to thank the incredible team at the Albany Capital Center, at Mazzone Hospitality, and the ACES A/V team for their behind-the-scenes work, and to NYSEIA’s Staff, especially Suzanne Erb, NYSEIA’s Director of Events and Operations, who quarterbacked another successful event.
Even in the face of significant challenges, New York’s distributed energy future is bright. Together, we are charting a path forward for an affordable, reliable, and clean energy future for New York. Onward!
NYSEIA staff in front of the Albany Capital Center
