Bringing Rooftop Solar Within Reach for New York’s Working Families
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By State Sen. Peter Harckham
The State of New York is leading the clean energy revolution.
The Empire State boasts the number one community solar market in the country, a market that ensures renters and low-income families that can’t install solar on their own rooftops can participate in and benefit from New York’s clean energy investment.
New York has installed 5,000 megawatts of rooftop and community solar to date, lowering household energy bills, supporting thousands of clean energy jobs and delivering early progress toward the ambitious clean energy goals in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), our nation-leading climate law.
We should celebrate this progress, but there is a lot more work to do. New York City alone has 20 fossil-fuel plants powering the city, and local air pollution causes about 2,400 premature deaths per year, in addition to increased emergency room visits.
Bold action is needed to accelerate solar adoption. That’s why I introduced legislation (S3596C) to strengthen New York’s residential solar equipment tax credit. The tax credit, worth 25 percent of total system costs, has been capped at $5,000 per household since 2006.
The incentive is also largely inaccessible to low-income families and other New Yorkers who often lack the tax liability to take advantage of the credit. Expanding the tax credit and making it refundable for low-income families will provide more New Yorkers with the opportunity to generate their own electricity and help working families reduce their energy bills.
New York is in the process of developing its FY2024-2025 state budget. We have the opportunity to expand the residential solar tax credit by including S3596C in this year’s budget. This is a logical step that will provide many benefits for New Yorkers.
Climate change is an urgent challenge, but this is about more than climate; it’s about air pollution, public health, energy affordability and environmental justice. This proposal will accelerate solar adoption in low-income communities and displace the fossil fuel plants that are exacerbating heart disease, asthma attacks, respiratory diseases and cancer in those same communities.
Increasing the tax credit cap also adjusts for the impact of inflation on family budgets for the first time in nearly 18 years, while expanding more opportunities for low-income and senior homeowners to invest in clean energy. Solar energy systems are assets proven to save families money and increase property values. A refundable tax credit will put the financial benefits of solar within reach of those that do not have sufficient tax liability to take advantage of the existing tax credit.
New York will not meet its CLCPA targets unless solar power is accessible to all residents. The existing tax credit has helped us approach our goal of installing six gigawatts of distributed solar by 2025 ahead of schedule. Strengthening the credit and ensuring that it is accessible to low-income New Yorkers are vital to our continued progress.
To open the opportunity to participate in and benefit from our clean energy transition, an increased and refundable solar tax credit should be part of the FY2024-25 state budget.
State Sen. Peter Harckham represents the 40th Senate District and chairs the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee.
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