New York State Governor Charles Hochul has proposed legislation to streamline the approval process for community solar and transmission permitting, with the aim of increasing the approvals process to be more responsive to community feedback and environmental considerations. This comes after the New York Public Utilities Commission approved a US$4.4 billion package of transmission upgrades in February 2023, which it said would enable an additional 3.5GW of renewable energy generation capacity additions. The governor also proposed a proceeding to improve the interconnection process for distributed renewable energy sources, which would include incentives, penalties, and other mechanisms to speed up interconnection by state utilities. New York State is already a significant market for distributed solar, particularly community solar. As of December 2023 the state had passed 2GW of installed community solar capacity.
Solar Dominates US Energy Capacity Growth
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has published data showing that solar accounted for over 75% of US electrical generating
