Private solar power installations at homes and businesses more than doubled last year in New York City and Westchester County. In 2009, 134 PV systems were installed in that area and solar power capacity was 4 MW. Last year, there were 203 PV installations, bringing the capacity up to 8.5 MW.
Westchester County installations actually fell slightly from 2009, but the New York City boroughs ramped up their solar. Queens actually quadrupled its installations from 16 in 2009 to 64 in 2010, adding over 1,538 kW of capacity.
Utility company Con Edison is taking the credit for the solar boom saying they promoted the economic and environmental benefits of solar power systems and also streamlined the approval process for residential systems under 25 kW.
The number of small-scale solar installations has grown more rapidly than larger solar projects recently, mainly due to the economic downturn and the high price of larger installations, but also because the approval process for large projects can be a nightmare for developers. While small, distributed installations won't solve the climate crisis on their own, they are an essential part of the solution.
Although the percentage gain sounds good - in reality this is a minuscule increase compared to what was installed in German Cities last year - but at least its a step in the right direction
via Earthtechling
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