The Clean Energy Policy Landscape: New York State

Clean Energy Standard

New York State’s pioneering Clean Energy Standard (CES) is intended to tackle climate change, reduce harmful air pollution, and ensure a diverse and reliable low carbon energy supply. To help achieve these goals, the state expanded its CES to ensure that 70 percent of New York's electricity comes from renewable energy sources by 2030 as part of the state’s clean energy and jobs agenda established under the landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). The 70 by 30 mandate updates the state’s regulatory and procurement structure and puts the state on track to achieve another important target: a zero-emission power sector by 2040.

Fundamental to helping the state reach its clean energy goals and transition toward a low carbon energy system are two distinct mechanisms: (1) the renewable energy standard (RES) which requires every load serving entity (LSE), or utility, in the state to serve their retail customers by procuring new renewable resources and (2) the zero-emissions credit which LSEs must purchase from NYSERDA every year. The CES also sets a new target for offshore wind energy – nine gigawatts by 2035.

Renewables Siting and Interconnection

The Office of Renewable Energy Siting, established by the landmark Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act, consolidates the environmental review of major renewable energy facilities and provides a single forum to ensure that siting decisions are predictable, reliable, and presented in a timely manner and includes ample opportunities for input from local communities. All large-scale, renewable energy projects 25 megawatts or larger will be required to obtain a siting permit from the Office of Renewable Energy Siting for new construction or expansion. Projects already in the initial phases of the previous siting process may remain or opt to transfer into the new siting process. New projects sized between 20 and 25 megawatts may also elect to apply for a siting permit. The new siting office has the authority to issue a single permit for the construction of major renewable energy facilities from both a state and local law perspective, but applicants will still be required to obtain any approvals necessary under federal law.

Large-scale renewables must also obtain an interconnection agreement from the New York Independent System Operator. “Interconnection” refers to the process of connecting new energy resources to the electric grid. The NYISO interconnection process is lengthy and expensive. The Interconnection Queue is a list of transmission and generation projects that are currently proposed and seeking to join the grid. This list, which ACE NY closely monitors, is regularly updated, and posted to the NYISO’s planning page. Most projects in the queue today are either renewable or energy storage resources.

Striving for Energy Efficiency

The State has an aggressive goal to reduce energy usage by 185 trillion British thermal units (Btu) by 2025, which is equivalent to fueling and powering 1.8 million New York homes annually. This goal was originally set in an order by the Public Service Commission, and then set into law in the CLCPA. The majority of energy efficiency programs in the State are run by the utilities. In 2020, the PSC updated the funding requirements for the utility programs, which also included coordination of heat pump installation programs. NYSERDA also has a number of energy efficiency programs for industries, businesses, schools, and housing, supports energy efficiency research, and clean technology workforce training.

Distributed Energy Resources: NY-Sun, VDER

Meeting New York State’s ambitious clean energy and climate goals require a thriving distributed generation sector, both solar and other distributed energy resources (DER). Distributed generation (DG) refers to a variety of technologies, often renewable energy sources, that generate electricity at or near where it will be used.

The state has done a great job making solar energy more accessible to homes, businesses, and communities and the NY-Sun program has a lot to do with this success. NY-Sun includes several key resources such as incentives and financing for home and business, educational information for homeowners and training, tools, and technical assistance for local government. NY-Sun also offers community solar for homes and businesses. The NY-Sun program is on track to meet the updated 6 GW by 2025 statewide goal for distributed solar deployment.

Distributed solar and other DER has been supported by net metering, a policy that allows customers to get credits on their electric bill at retail rates, for all the electricity generated onsite using eligible technologies like a rooftop solar electric system.

The state also makes use of a mechanism called the Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER), or the Value Stack, which compensates DER projects based on when and where they provide electricity to the grid and compensation is in the form of bill credits. The implementation of the Value Stack began in 2017.

Together, NY-Sun, net metering, and VDER - as well as certain tax credits and property tax exemptions – combine to support the growth of solar and other DER in NY.

Transportation Electrification

In New York, the transportation sector accounts for 28% of total emissions that cause global climate change. Transportation electrification is a critical piece in the clean energy transition. Electric vehicles (EVs) will reduce carbon emissions and co-pollutants, which negatively impact local air quality and public health in New York State (NYS) especially in disadvantaged communities.

NYS adopted goals to get 850,000 light-duty EVs (think passenger cars) on the road as well as deploy over 55,000 EV charging stations by 2025 as part of the State Zero Emission Vehicle Program Memorandum of Understanding (ZEV MOU) and the Make Ready Program, respectively. As of March 2023, NY has over 85,000 EVs on the road and 3,272 publicly accessible charging stations with 9,091 ports.

Under statute and regulation, New York requires that all new sales of passenger cars and trucks must be zero-emission by 2035, and medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sales by 2045. NYS also has an interim goal of 30% new vehicle sales be zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) by 2030 under the Multi-State ZEV MOU. In addition, NYS recently adopted a Heavy-Duty Omnibus regulation which requires medium- and heavy-duty vehicles meet stricter emissions standards.

There are several state incentive programs to support the deployment of EVs and charging infrastructure.

In the Governor’s 2022-2023 Budget, a mandate was enacted requiring all new school bus purchases be zero-emission vehicles by 2027 and all buses on the road be zero-emission by 2035. This is supported by $500 million in Environmental Bond Act funding for districts to transition, heavily supported by ACE NY.

In December of 2022, NYS released the long-awaited Climate Scoping Plan, which includes a plethora of recommendations for strategies to reduce emissions from the transportation sector.

However, there is work to be done in NYS to accelerate the adoption of EVs and achieve its ZEV and emissions reduction goals set forth in NY’s climate law. ACE NY is advocating for a suite of policies that will advance transportation electrification and secure a clean, equitable transportation sector future for NYS.