New York City has pledged to reach 1,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2030 — enough energy to power 250,000 homes, according to the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Justice. But state data shows that its current pace of installation will land short of that goal, leaving officials and advocates looking for ways to break down barriers to installation.

“It's the right kind of ambition that we need, but we're only a third of the way there,” said Louise Yeung, chief climate officer at the city comptroller’s office. “We need a different response to dramatically accelerate solar adoption among other kinds of renewable energy strategies in order to meet our climate goals.”

The slow pace isn’t due to lack of demand from New Yorkers – and, in recent years, has steadily increased. Brooklyn-based company Sunkeeper Solar has been installing solar panels on the city’s roofs since 2019, regularly completing several dozen projects in a year. But in recent months, Henry Hatch, the company's director of origination, said the pace of installation has ballooned.

“We’re ramping up, and everybody in the city at least — our competitors and contemporaries — are very busy as well,” Hatch said last month, standing on a rooftop of a 24-unit apartment building in Clinton Hill surrounded by dozens of newly installed solar panels. The panels will produce around 4,250 kilowatt hours of energy per month and save the building $600-$650 on monthly energy bills once complete. This is one of over 4,500 projects currently underway to turn solar rays into energy across the five boroughs, according to state data.

But the recent uptick needs a boost if New York City wants to achieve its 2030 target. The issue has also become more pressing as the city lags behind the rest of the state in meeting the energy goals laid out in the state climate law, which passed in 2020. It requires that 70% of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2030. New York City continues to have the dirtiest power grid in the state, with nearly 90% of its energy currently made up of fossil fuels.

Now, the comptroller, the Department of City Planning and city lawmakers are separately looking to streamline the installation process and rapidly expand the pace of solar installations. Though each proposal is different, the core motivation remains the same: Curbing New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions — which trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.

More energy must come from renewable sources, and scaling up the city’s solar energy generation will play a key role in that transition.

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