Rally for Community Solar at Capitol May 28

New York State’s climate law , the CLCPA, set a goal of installing six gigawatts of distributed rooftop and community solar energy generation by 2025. New York achieved the 6 GW goal in 2024 – one year ahead of schedule and $421 million under budget! While the state decided to expand distributed solar goal to 10 GW by 2030, the state’s Public Services Commission decided to reallocate $271 million – two-thirds of the projected surplus – to other programs. Solar companies and climate advocates held a rally at the Capitol on May 28 to support Senator Harckham’s Accelerate Solar for Affordable Power (“ASAP”) Act which will reverse the PSC decision and increase the distributed solar goal to 20 gigawatts by 2035, and enact utility interconnection reforms to lower costs. We hear from Sen. Harckham, Michael Richardson of Third Act Upstate NY; Noah Ginsberg of the NY Solar Energy Industries Association, and from two workers from the solar industry. By Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.