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Westchester County residents have more choices when it comes to green energy, thanks to a solar partnership with industry leader sonnen.
Earth Day may be a ways away, but Sustainable Westchester, a non-profit administering Westchester Power Program and the largest community choice aggregator in New York, has partnered with sonnen, a global leader in residential energy storage, to inspire Westchester residents to go green with a new solar project.
The two environmental powerhouses have teamed up to launch a pioneering solar plus battery program for homeowners in New York State called sonnenCommunity NewYork Virtual Power Plant (VPP). The goal of the program’s initial pilot phase will be to offer locally generated clean energy at a discounted rate to 200 homes in Westchester County with sonnen as its exclusive hardware and software provider. Additionally, Sustainable Westchester will act as a premier partner for the project, working with sonnen and local solar contractors to build a dispatchable grid asset which will provide homeowners with resilient backup power, promote carbon-neutral living, and generate revenue for participating in the New York energy market.
“The launch of the sonnenCommunity NY VPP represents another milestone for sonnen and a turning point for clean energy and grid-integration in New York State,” says Blake Richetta, Chairman and CEO of sonnen. “With the help and dedication of local partners like Sustainable Westchester, Quest Solar, and SunBlue Energy, the sonnen team is thrilled to offer New York homeowners safe, long-lasting clean energy our systems provide through this innovative new program.”
The benefits of subscribing to the sonnenCommunity NY VPP do not stop at the opportunity it provides Westchester residents to establish a cleaner energy future for the generations of both today and tomorrow. New and existing solar customers will also be offered New York State tax credits (where eligible), lower annual energy costs, safe, reliable backup power and energy security during outages, and protection from changes in solar net-metering, time-of-use rates, and demand charges. The local electric grid will also be balanced by the network of residential solar plus sonnen batteries, which can reduce outages and brownouts and lower CO2 emissions.
Two regional contractors and installation partners, Quest Solar and Sun Blue Energy, will begin working to initiate this program locally among eligible Westchester homeowners. “Fostering community engagement and inspiring environmental leadership are key tenets of our business model,” says Michel Delafontaine, Director of Business Development at Sustainable Westchester. “With our involvement in the sonnenCommunity NY VPP, we’re able to deploy our knowledge of regional markets and municipal programs as well as our connections with local leadership to implement an innovative solution from sonnen that provides a clean, reliable energy future for our residents and community infrastructure.”
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Based on the success of the initial pilot phase, sonnen hopes to expand the project to include several Long Island communities, with the ultimate goal of bringing 5,000 new solar and storage units per quarter online in the sonnenCommunity NY VPP by 2024.
“By joining this program,” Richetta explains, “homeowners are not just making an investment in their own home’s resilience and sustainability in the face of extreme weather and outages, they are contributing to a greener, more sustainable future for their local power grid.” Sonnen and Sustainable Westchester wholeheartedly urge Westchester residents to consider taking advantage of this incredible opportunity because that greener, more sustainable future may be just within reach.
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