Long Island Wants More Solar

Clean Energy Authority

Last Friday, July 12 the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) said it wants more solar—a lot more solar for the small island. The island’s electric utility announced its CLEAN Solar Initiative-II (CSI-11), a program that will provide a feed-in tariff for 100 megawatts of solar projects between 100 kilowatts and 2 megawatts. And that’s just for now. The utility also is planning to issue requests for proposal for another 300 megawatts of renewable energy.

The newly announced CSI-II follows on the heels of the first version of the CSI, and LIPA’s Solar Pioneer and Entrepreneur programs, which have led to 6,500 installations on homes and other buildings on the Island. The first round of CSI called for up to 50 megawatts of PV to be incentivized under CSI. The city also installed a 32 megawatt PV farm at Brookhaven National Lab and solar carports on Suffolk County parking lots.