New York City Public Solar Program

To accelerate New York City’s equitable clean energy transition, HR&A has been helping the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) and the Office of the Comptroller to assess the feasibility of Public Solar NYC (PSNYC) — NYC’s first public solar program targeted to Low-to-Moderate Income residents. The City’s new solar program has already secured $250 million in federal funding and will contribute to a more climate-resilient and equitable NYC.

While New York City’s density and building stock present specific challenges to solar installations, the main obstacles are driven by the complex relationships between real estate economics, legal frameworks and relationships, regulations and codes, and energy economics that are often uncertain. This problem is especially heightened in low- to moderate-income communities, where homeowners lack resources to access clean energy transition incentives. HR&A is leading a phased effort with the City to understand and quantify these barriers, design a program with tailored solutions, successfully apply for the Solar for All funding, and create an implementation plan for NYC’s transformative new solar program.

For the first phase of the project, HR&A led a multidisciplinary team to analyze operational, financial, and legal feasibility for solar implementation. HR&A supplemented the analysis with stakeholder interviews to understand challenges and opportunities to streamline solar installation process for customers, conducted a market analysis of the NYC building stock to prioritize neighborhoods for targeted outreach. On Earth Day 2023, NYC Mayor Eric Adams released PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done, which included a commitment to a public solar financing project for low-income homeowners in environmental justice communities, informed by HR&A’s study.

During the second phase of the project, HR&A supported the City of New York on its successful application for the Solar for All grant, part of the 27 billion dollars Federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The State’s application secured millions of dollars that led to the creation of PSNYC, a new program that targets specific barriers to solar deployment for disadvantaged communities and low-income households.

HR&A developed a detailed financial program for a funded publicly funded solar program that was structured to revolve profits from solar leasing and community solar programs back into the program to ensure the fund could be self-sustaining. HR&A also developed a detailed implementation plan for the establishment of an entity to administer the public solar program. The implementation plan describes the responsibilities and funding across several phases: marketing and outreach, system installation, and operations for both the public leasing and community solar programs.

HR&A continues supporting the City in the successful implementation of PSNYC as they receive new funding from the Federal Government.

Learn more about the Solar for All grant award in this EPA Announcement