The Governor of New York State proposed to expand the NY-Sun Distributed Solar Energy Incentive Program and announced plans for two transmission projects that will deliver renewable energy to New York City to help the state achieve 70% renewable electricity by 2030.

Kathy Hochul, who was sworn in as governor last month, called on the state’s NY-Sun plan to achieve the new goal of installing at least 10GW of distributed solar energy by 2030, higher than the current 6GW target of 2025.

In addition to the existing 12,000 jobs statewide, the expansion of the program is expected to help promote New York’s economic recovery after COVID-19, creating 6,000 solar jobs. The plan will also provide at least 35% of investment income to disadvantaged communities and low- and middle-income New Yorkers.

"Through this expansion, we demonstrate New York State's commitment to increasing the amount of renewable energy flowing into the grid and creating more jobs in the solar industry to support our evolving clean energy economy," Governor Hochul said.

NY-Sun plans to provide cash incentives and/or financing for the deployment of new grid-connected solar systems for residential installations up to 25kW. It also supports non-residential systems up to 750kW or 7.5MW, depending on their location. Since 2011, the program has provided more than $1 billion in incentives to support the addition of solar energy to 145,000 properties in New York State.

At present, the installed distributed solar system combined with the project under development allows the state to reach 95% of the current climate bill target, which is to reach 6GW of solar energy by 2025.

Hochul called on the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency and the New York State Department of Public Service to develop a distributed solar roadmap to plan the path to the new goals in a "flexible, cost-effective and responsible manner." The roadmap is expected to be released in early 2022 for public comment and subsequent decision-making.

"Governor Hochul's 10GW distributed solar goal will help us extend rooftop and community solar to more homes in New York, while cleaning our air, creating high-quality jobs and strengthening our communities," the company's CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said. The Solar Energy Industry Association added: "The solar industry stands ready to help New York achieve this ambitious goal."

Hochul also said that two power transmission projects have been selected to transport a combination of solar, wind and hydropower from high-demand areas in Canada and northern New York to high-demand areas.

The Clean Path NY project, developed by Forward Power (a joint venture of Invenergy and EnergyRe) and the New York Power Authority, will be equipped with a 174-mile transmission line from a substation in Delaware County to New York City, including a copy according to the Hochul office The statement stated that buried cables "will be more resilient than ground cables in the face of inclement weather and security threats."

The second development project, called the Champlain Hudson Power Express project, will be carried out by the transmission developer and Quebec Hydro, and will include a 339-mile transmission line from Quebec Hydro’s wind and hydropower facilities in Canada to New York City.

These projects are in addition to the 250-mile "green energy transmission highway" announced earlier this year to reduce the cost of congestion caused by grid bottlenecks.

It is hoped that the new transmission line will improve the air quality and public health of disadvantaged communities, while speeding up progress and surpassing New York’s goal of achieving 70% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030, as its goal is to achieve a zero-emission power sector by 2040 .

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that these plans represent a “transformative moment” in the city’s response to climate change, adding: “Two new transmission lines connect New York City to water The connection of, wind and solar power generation will create thousands of good union jobs, improve the resilience and reliability of our electricity supply, and greatly reduce our dependence on oil and gas electricity, because oil and gas electricity pollutes the air in our communities. And endanger our planet."