Business View Magazine | June 2019

284 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JUNE 2019 development activity which is looking at next- generation technologies and how to introduce them to the market when we have technologies working, through early demonstration projects.” As climate change has become an ever-more- present reality, those environmental drivers have become ever more present in the policies New York has advanced, and those policies have influenced the focus of NYSERDA-based activities. “From technology R&D, to building the scale of clean energy in markets, we have expanded the mission to include technologies for energy services to advance our economic and environmental needs in New York, particularly on climate change imperatives,” adds Williams. “Our mission is to advance innovative energy solutions in ways that improve New York’s economy and environment. Our vision is to serve as a catalyst – advancing energy innovation, technology, and investment; transforming New York’s economy; and empowering people to choose clean and efficient energy as part of their everyday lives.” Climate change and clean energy remain the strong focus of the way NYSERDA engages with the market. New York’s 2015 state energy plan, which established emission reduction goals in the energy sector and renewable energy and energy efficiency goals, established the market signal that NYSERDA and other state agencies would utilize in creating programs and analyses to understand barriers to adoption for clean energy in the state. “Then we can target activities to address those barriers, as sometimes technology barriers exist as relative higher costs to other market choices, Williams notes. “If it’s a cost barrier, NYSERDA will create a program opportunity with the customer realizing a lower cost for that particular technology, such as a direct grant program aimed at higher uptake and customer adoption of clean energy technology.” There might be other costs the customer realizes not just on the technology, such as permitting costs and permit delays; if some don’t understand what the technology’s designed to do, some education is needed there. NYSERDA looks at the entire supply chain – manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers. As customers want efficient and clean technology options readily available, NYSERDA works with the supply chain so they see the financial benefit in offering clean energy alternatives. The NY-Sun Program, Governor Cuomo’s $1 billion initiative to scale up solar and move the State closer to having a sustainable, self-sufficient solar industry, is designed at getting at both the hard cost and the soft cost of solar energy. When the consumer has made a decision to install solar, how can it be made as easy and inexpensive as possible for that solar project to be realized? The declining block program is an incentive that identifies that, as more solar is coming into the economy, it’s assumed those technology costs should be declining over time, so the incentive declines as levels of penetration of that technology into the system are estimated. New York Sun also has attended to education, working with building inspectors at the permitting level, so they have a better sense of the technology they’re dealing with. Therefore, when they see systems come into their neighborhoods, they’re not feeling as if they