New York State’s community solar program is also referred to as Community Distributed Generation (CDG). Because New York prefers to be technology neutral, (e.g. hydropower and other renewable technologies can be developed at the community scale), community solar is technically Distributed Generation or DG.

Distributed Generation means generation sources that interconnect with the electric grid at the distribution level. In New York, CDG projects are capped at 5 Megawatts.

Community DG is an opt-in bill credit program. A DG project is built and owned by a private company that seeks subscribers to sign up voluntarily. When they do, they sign a contract promising to pay the company 90 cents on the dollar for a monetary credit on their bill. The value of the credit is priced using the Value Stack (New York’s pricing mechanism that replaced net metering). CDG typically offers a 10% discount below the utility rate.

What is Opt-Out CDG?

Opt-Out CDG is a program that would allow CCAs to contract with community DG projects so that the bill credits from the renewable project could be applied to automatically enrolled CCA participants.

Opt-Out CDG was first authorized by the PSC in response to a petition by Joule Assets, and subsequently, a few more towns also passed supplemental laws and began setting it up. But on November 2021, the PSC issued its Order Identifying Further Procedural Steps Regarding the Development of Opt-Out Community Distributed Generation which it directed Staff to file, within 120 days of the effective date of the CDG Procedural Order, proposed opt-out CDG program operation, oversight, and enforcement rules, with the Secretary for future Commission consideration. We are still waiting for this Order to be issued.

Join the Coalition!

MHET has joined with local governments, environmental and equity-focused organizations, and industry stakeholders to form a coalition that is committed to advancing state and local clean energy goals through the implementation of Opt-Out Community Distributed Generation (CDG) in New York.