NYC’s Policy Target and Roadmap for Resilient Solar+Storage

It is clear that 21st century energy needs must include energy storage infrastructure. Pairing storage with renewable distributed generation resources like solar PV can increase reliability, local control and resiliency for consumers, as well as for utility and emergency planners. However, this technology needs a pathway through regulatory, policy and financial hurdles, some of which are unique to urban environments. The Sustainable CUNY Smart DG Hub’s Resilient Solar Project has created the Resilient Solar Roadmap, a 5-7 year plan for expanding the deployment of solar+storage in NYC. Additionally this plan helped engender the development of the nation’s first municipal energy storage target, NYC’s goal of 100 megawatt-hours by 2020, which was announced during Climate Week in Sept. 2016.

In this webinar, Laurie Reilly of Sustainable CUNY and Kathryn Wright of Meister Consultants Group discussed the collaborative development process for creating the Roadmap, along with the barriers and recommendations outlined within the plan. Ben Mandel of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability described the City’s storage target and what types of policy initiatives can help drive NYC towards achieving this goal.

This webinar was a presentation of Clean Energy Group’s Resilient Power Project, and was moderated by Clean Energy Group project director Seth Mullendore. For more information and resources from the Resilient Power Project, visit www.resilient-power.org.