Harris Beach attorney Michelle K. Piasecki, a member of the firm’s Energy Industry Team, will join a panel at the upcoming 2023 New York Solar Summit to discuss how restrictive local laws make siting a significant barrier to clean energy deployment in New York and around the nation.

Siting is rivaled only by interconnection and hosting capacity limitation in hindering clean energy progress. New York is a home rule state, and New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA) estimates restrictive local laws are preventing up to 4.6 gigawatts of otherwise viable distributed solar from being deployed in areas with available hosting capacity.

At the same time, community-scale solar and storage projects are being deployed more rapidly than large-scale renewables, and companies are increasingly seeking to address siting concerns through beneficial siting practices that provide community co-benefits, including brownfield conversion and agrivoltaics.

Michelle and fellow panelists will discuss this and what innovative solar companies are doing to address the issue. The 2023 NYSEIA Solar Summit is scheduled for Nov. 9 in Albany.

Harris Beach’s experienced Energy Industry Team helps clients keep up with the complex and ever-changing New York and national energy landscapes. The firm regularly works with clients in all aspects of energy law, from generation and transmission owners to utilities and energy service companies.