Making NYC a solar energy hub

CUNY Ventures, a City University of New York (CUNY) Economic Development Corporation entity, is developing the capability to analyze and understand important solar market indicators that can make solar system development more cost competitive.

Using IBM’s Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) for Smarter Cities as the foundation, the analytics-based approach is aimed at helping New York City monitor and analyze solar production and capacity through a virtual control room that will provide a dashboard view of key indicators.

IBM reports that with its help, CUNY Ventures wants to make New York City a solar energy hub, and to create a sustainable model that can incorporate additional data and provide analytics to help city leaders and utility planners integrate other forms of renewable energy and better manage city operations.

Matthew Goldstein, City University of New York chancellor, says, “CUNY faculty helped develop the NYC Solar Map that displays the solar potential of every building in the city. Now our CUNY team is working with our partners on groundbreaking solutions that can help New York accelerate the adoption of this clean renewable energy.”

According to IBM, the new system will use analytics to deliver real-time data from a variety of sources, including the NYC Solar Map, providing a searchable dashboard of key performance indicators and trends. Using that technology, CUNY Ventures can fine-tune current resource usage and identify barriers. Plans include expanding the effort to other major jurisdictions in New York State, with a goal of creating standards and streamlining the permits process.