A Cool New Solar Tool

The economics of solar energy have been changing for a while – cheaper and better hardware, bigger and better tax credits and incentives – and the result has been a proliferation of rooftop solar installations across New York City. The office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced the second round of NYS Solarize campaigns, which are set to complete 850 solar projects around the state to help reach the goals of New York's Clean Energy Standard. One is to draw half of the state’s electricity needs from renewable sources by the year 2030.

Now, reports Solar One, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has developed an interactive tool that shows you exactly where those projects are located, as well as the ones from Solarize Round 1 and all other solar installations – how big they are, how many are already up and running, and how many are on the way.  It’s never been easier to keep up with the Joneses. You can search by county, and you can also choose a particular project type (Commercial/Industrial, Residential, Small Commercial, or All). The results are pretty interesting, including the fact that the city’s five boroughs now have 100 Megawatts of completed solar projects. That’s enough to power more than 16,000 homes, based on national averages.

For true data nerds, you can take a deep dive into all the background info with the full dataset here at OpenNY.