The Challenge

• To diversify New Yorkers’ energy use and to promote the adoption of new clean energy technologies, the State must support investment in proven, yet underutilized renewable energy technologies.
• Net metering allows electricity customers with qualified renewable energy systems to sell excess electricity back to the utility. Through net metering, the State can provide financial and technical support to an emerging and promising industry in New York.
• The Lieutenant Governor’s Renewable Energy Task Force has identified New York’s net metering law limitations as a barrier to wider installation of distributed renewable energy generation. Current law limits net metering to residences and farms, limits the size of PV systems to 10 kilowatts (kW), and limits the maximum contribution of systems eligible to sell power back to a utility.
• Net-metered renewable energy systems reduce the need for fossil-fuel fired electricity generation, and help improve the reliability of the electricity grid. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems generate the most electricity during hot and sunny days, when energy demand is greatest.
• Businesses with large roof areas present enormous opportunities for hosting PV systems which could lead to significant installations, but, under current law, businesses are not permitted to “net meter.”

Our Approach

• The Administration will work with the Legislature to expand the State’s solar net metering law to apply to businesses; increase the size of eligible solar PV systems to 25kW for residential customers and to 2 megawatts for commercial customers; and increase to one percent of a utility’s load, the maximum amount of electricity that the utility would be required to buy back.
• These efforts complement implementation of the State’s Renewable Portfolio Standard and Executive Order 111.

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