Hochul Celebrates New York’s Largest Rooftop Solar Project
WASHINGTON — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday celebrated the completion of the state’s largest rooftop solar project.
Located in Orange County, New York, or about 62 miles north of New York City, the 7.2 MW community solar project has been installed atop a distribution center owned by Medline Industries, a manufacturer of medical products.
The project is composed of more than 17,000 panels and generates 8.5 million kilowatt-hours of clean power annually, enough to power over 1,600 homes, while reducing carbon emissions by nearly 6,000 metric tons annually, the equivalent of taking over 1,200 cars off the road.
“New York continues to be an example to other states with our aggressive development of renewable energy, and our commitment to clean, affordable solar is key to us successfully building a zero-emission electricity grid,” Hochul said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week.
“The completion of this project marks another major milestone in the Empire State and reflects a successful trend of private investment in community-centered projects that are now at the heart of our clean energy transition,” she said.
The over $8 million project, sited in the Town of Montgomery, was built with nearly $5 million in private investment from the developer, PowerFlex, a provider of solar, storage, and electric vehicle charging solutions for commercial customers.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority provided over $3 million in project support through NY-Sun, the state’s signature initiative to advance the scale-up of solar by driving costs down and making solar energy more accessible to homes, businesses and communities.
In exchange for a commitment to create more than 260 new jobs, Empire State Development awarded Medline up to $10 million in Excelsior Jobs Tax Credits.
“Under Gov. Hochul’s leadership, New York is the nation’s top community solar market — attracting new strategic private-public partnerships to help us transform the way we power homes and businesses,” said NYSERDA president and CEO Doreen Harris in a written statement.
“The vision and commitment shared by Medline Industries and Powerflex for this project serves as a model to other commercial properties considering hosting similar projects that can reduce their carbon footprint while expanding access to solar for residents in the surrounding community,” Harris said.
Community solar involves a large array of solar panels that allows homeowners and renters to access solar power without installing panels on their homes.
Energy is still delivered through their regular electric provider while the power produced from the community solar array is fed directly back to the electric grid and customers receive credits on their electricity bill.
Medline’s distribution center, which opened in August 2022, employs more than 700 people distributing products and devices to health care providers, such as hospitals, nursing homes and ambulatory surgery centers.
The facility will use about 40% of the clean energy generated by the rooftop solar array, leaving 60% available for approximately 600 local residents, who can subscribe to the system and receive credits on their electricity bill for an estimated 10% monthly savings.
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