The New York Power Authority (NYPA) Board of Trustees today (May 25) authorized a financial arrangement with Sol Systems and Westchester County enabling the completion of five solar energy projects at county-owned properties. NYPA agreed to purchase the systems' electric output from the developer, Sol Systems, at an anticipated annual cost of $355,000 for a 20-year term, and, in turn, sell that energy to the county.
NYPA is partnering with Westchester County to develop solar systems at a total of nine properties, including bus garages in Yonkers and Valhalla, the Westchester County courthouse annex in White Plains, Parks headquarters in Ardsley and the Archives' Center in Elmsford. The new systems are expected to offset more than 4,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases each year, generate enough energy to power more than 700 homes a year, and create 215 green jobs.
Five of the sites (3.9 MW) will directly offset the county's facilities' loads with clean energy produced from the solar projects. Four additional sites are in development to offer affordable clean energy to community residents and small businesses. Construction on the first five will begin this summer.
NYPA is also working with Westchester County to negotiate agreements for municipalities and school districts that want to build solar systems to meet their own renewable energy goals, while also helping achieve targets set by the state's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, passed in 2019.
New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan
Governor Cuomo's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York is on a path to achieve its mandated goal of a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy wide carbon neutrality. It builds on New York's unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy including over $21 billion in 91 large-scale renewable projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and over $1.2 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting more than 150,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector in 2019, a 2,100 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011 and a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Under Governor Cuomo's leadership, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at least 35 percent with a goal of 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities, and advance progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.
Contacts: Lynne Smith; Lynne.Smith@nypa.gov (914) 346-4656
