His administration had earlier set goals of installing 250MW on private buildings and 100MW on public ones by 2025.
“I am happy to announce we're on track to meet that goal having quadrupled solar capacity since 2013,” De Blasio said, noting when he took office on 1 January 2014 solar installations were 25MW. They now total 96MW.
The Department of Buildings will issue permits for more than 3,000 solar panel installations this year alone and that will bring the citywide total to more than 8,000 in 2016. That is an increase from 1,819 installations when he took office.
De Blasio also set the city’s first ever energy storage deployment target – 100 megawatt-hours by 2020. This target will help reduce reliance on the grid by making variable sources of energy production usable for more of the day, his administration said in a statement.
New York City has more than 2,700 solar jobs within its geographical limits. De Blasio believes the new solar targets will create additional high-paying local jobs and solidify the city's position as a leading solar employment hub in the US northeast.
De Blasio left unchanged his administration’s commitment to meeting an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
