Solar Energy Adoption and Urban Barriers in NYC
Advisor: Ms. Jones
Internship Location: Mars Green Consulting (Remote)
Onsite Mentor: Dr. Martha Lenio, P. Edn. Lead Consultant and Owner
In recent years, the adverse effects of climate change from fossil fuel emissions have become increasingly evident. Consequently, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector through renewable energy has emerged as a central goal of climate conservation efforts. Urban areas are especially critical for this transition, with cities contributing to over two thirds of global energy consumption. However, the adoption of solar energy, a scalable renewable resource, has remained slow in many cities, particularly New York City, because of non-technical urban limitations. This study examines how these limitations such as permitting issues, building infrastructure, and zoning regulations influence solar energy adoption in New York City and whether these limitations disproportionately affect lower-income communities. To investigate this question, the research will synthesize academic literature and publicly available datasets from sources such as NYSERDA and NYC Open Data. Primarily, it will use interviews with residents across eight neighborhoods (Upper West Side, Harlem, Astoria, Long Island City, Flushing, Jackson Heights, Cobble Hill, and Williamsburg) to document lived experiences of permitting and zoning barriers that datasets and surveys often fail to capture. In addition, through a potential on-site placement with a solar installation company, I will gain insight into the permitting and logistical challenges that inform solar project development. I expect to find that permitting complexity and urban infrastructure increase installation time and cost, contributing to adoption trends that align with neighborhood income levels. By identifying policies related to adoption disparity, this research aims to raise awareness of barriers limiting equitable solar access.
Project Blog
Week 0: Introduction
Hello everyone, my name is Talin, and I am excited to welcome you all to my first senior project blog post!
For my senior project, I will be exploring how urban constraints, such as permitting issues, building infrastructure, and zoning regulations, influence solar energy adoption and installment in New York City. Specifically, my research will focus on how those constraints differ between higher- and lower-income neighborhoods.
Paradoxically, solar energy can be both a cheap and expensive form of energy. In cities especially, high upfront costs place solar energy out of reach for many households. Over the long term, however, solar energy becomes relatively inexpensive for those who can afford the initial investment, since sunlight itself is free.
Therefore, understanding the urban barriers that contribute to these high initial costs is an important step toward improving both solar adoption and equitable access to solar energy in cities. For this project, I will be working remotely with Mars Green Consulting under the Guidance of Dr. Martha Lenio. I will use a combination of data analysis and resident interviews to research this topic. For my final deliverable, I will write a research paper providing a detailed analysis on how regulatory factors influence solar energy adoption across neighbourhoods.
More information can be found here in my senior project proposal. I look forward to keeping you all updated over the next few weeks!
Week 1: Plugging Into Solar
Hey everyone! Today marks a week since I have officially started working on my Senior Project. On Wednesday, I met with my remote advisor, Dr. Martha Lenio, where we discussed how I should begin structuring my research. Given that many factors play a role in shaping solar adoption in New York City, we focused on organizing the neighborhoods I would conduct my interviews in to allow for relevant comparisons. In the end, we decided to select four neighborhood types: two lower-income and two higher-income, with each representing a different building typology (either high-rise or low-rise). By using this structure, I will be able to compare whether building type or income level has a greater impact on solar adoption in NYC, without guessing as to which factors are at play.
Over the past couple of days, I have also been working to build upon my knowledge of solar energy adoption in New York City through a detailed literature review. Namely, I have consulted the sources listed below:
Integrating Solar Energy in Urban Development: Strategies for Sustainable and Smart Cities
Transforming Urban Energy: Developments and Challenges in PV Integration
Cost-Effective Solar Strategies for Affordable Housing in NYS
Throughout my readings, I was intrigued by the concept of community solar as a means to adopt solar energy without directly installing panels on your roof. In Shady solar: understanding barriers and facilitators to residential solar adoption for low- and moderate-income homeowners in New York City, Bansal and others introduced community solar as a direct policy response to the structural barriers facing low to moderate-income renters in New York City. Given that 67% of residents in NYC are renters, I would like to dive deeper into both the scope and community awareness of community solar in the city. In the upcoming weeks, I plan to continue researching programs like community solar, which seek to overcome the barriers related to solar energy adoption in urban areas. Moreover, I also plan to use these insights to shape my interview questions later on in my research. I am excited to continue this process while keeping you all updated as my research develops!
Week 2: Rewiring
Hello everyone, and welcome to my third blog post for my senior project! To give a short recap, last week I focused on developing the foundational knowledge needed for my research through a literature review. This week, I continued to lay the groundwork for my future research, focusing primarily on refining my methodology.
One of my largest developments this week was changing my information gathering process. Initially, I planned to gather data on the personal challenges of adopting solar in New York City through interviews. After meeting with my remote advisor, however, we came to an agreement that relying solely on interviews would potentially limit the simple size of my research. Therefore, I have decided to move to a combined methodology, making use of both interviews and surveys to gather information. Since our meeting, I have worked on and refined a survey that will be distributed to NYC residents and can be found here. The questions in this survey are informed by the literature I reviewed in the previous week, focusing on topics such as financial incentives, permitting challenges, and structural barriers to solar adoption.
Another large decision I have made this week was finalizing the neighborhoods in which I will be collecting data from. After consulting with both my in-school and remote advisors, I have decided to focus on the following four neighborhoods: Battery Park, Park Slope, Coney Island, and Red Hook. To distribute my survey, I plan to hang up fliers throughout each of these neighborhoods. Within the next few weeks, I am excited to start gathering data which will help answer my research question!
Week 3: Setting Up the Grid
Hi everyone! Welcome to my third week of blogging for the senior project. I was on spring break last week, so it's good to be back. To recap, in the first two weeks, I focused on building a research foundation by conducting a literature review on solar adoption barriers, drafting my survey questions, and designing the flyers I planned to distribute across four neighborhoods (Park Slope, Battery Park City, Coney Island, and Red Hook).
This week, I focused on hanging up my flyers. I created a total of 50 flyers, and distributed around 12 copies in each of the four neighborhoods. Each flyer explains the project and includes a QR code linking to the survey, so anyone who picks one up can respond on their own time. The distribution itself was pretty straightforward. Given the fact that many people travel around New York City, I tried to post in spots where residents actually spend time such as coffee shops, laundromats, community boards, and building lobbies. While hanging up flyers, I found that each neighborhood had a slightly different feel. For example, Park Slope had no shortage of bulletin boards to hang up flyers, while Red Hook required a little more hunting for public-facing spaces.
In the upcoming weeks, I hope to begin receiving responses on my survey so the project can start coming together. I look forward to keeping you all updated on my findings!
Week 4: Collecting Charge
Hey everyone! Welcome to my fourth week of blogging for the Senior Project. Last week I hung up my flyers around New York City, and this week the responses are starting to come in, which is really exciting. I haven't gotten as many responses as I'd like yet, and not from all the neighborhoods I am targeting, but it's a start.
So far, the data I’ve received is pretty interesting. Most people who responded don’t have solar panels installed, which isn’t that surprising given that most people in New York rent rather than own and therefore have no say in whether their building can install solar. One metric that stood out to me, however, was the general consensus around interest in solar: everyone who indicated that they haven’t installed solar also expressed that they would like to. It is becoming clear that there is a division between the people who want solar and those who actually have the ability to install it. Among those who have installed solar, respondents indicated that the biggest barriers to adoption were the initial installation cost and structural limitations. In particular, one responder noted that their panels were required to face south in order to be installed.
The main challenge right now is getting more responses, especially from the specific neighborhoods I'm focusing on: Red Hook, Park Slope, Coney Island, and Battery Park. So my next step is expanding my outreach. I'm looking at Facebook community pages, since many of the neighborhoods I'm studying have active ones, and I’m also going to start reaching out to local community blogs that already have the audiences I need. I am excited to update you all as I hear back from more people.
Week 5: Results and What's Next
Hello and welcome back to week 5 of my senior project blog! Over these past couple of weeks I have been focusing on data collection, and now things are starting to come together. So far, I have gathered over 40 responses and I am closing in on 50 responses.
In order to gather this many responses, I had to go through several outreach strategies, including hanging up fliers, talking to people on the street, and reaching out to community blogs. However, I have found the most effective strategy to be leveraging my network. Namely, with the support of my on-site advisor, I was able to reach out to faculty directly, which caused a significant boost in responses.
Compared to last week, this week’s data tell a different story. A larger share of respondents indicated that they do not have solar panels installed, and when asked about the barriers to adoption, the most commonly cited reason was that they do not own their property. Going into this project, I expected income to be the determining factor: those in higher-income areas would simply be more likely to have solar panels. However, the data suggest that property ownership is the strongest predictor of solar adoption. Nearly all respondents who have solar live in a home they own, while those without solar most commonly rent their homes.
Based on this finding, I decided to investigate why landlords and building owners so rarely install solar in the first place. One thing that really stood out was the mismatch between payback timelines and rental incentives. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “although PV solar systems typically have favorable return on investment over the life of operation, many commercial building owners or tenants require short payback periods for investments. Renewable energy projects often have longer paybacks than energy efficiency measures or other capital investments.” In my earlier blogs, I mentioned community solar as an alternative model for those who struggle to install rooftop solar. Based on my findings, it could be a really promising option for renters who are locked out of traditional rooftop solar entirely. I'm planning to explore that angle further in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!
Also, if anyone would like to respond to my survey, the link can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5sKHtpmxiAdeRjB0tqcwe7VSSbA4pBvPTMsy-OfCoTL5ZRQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=110983831787696626151
Week 6: Connecting Circuits
Hey everyone, welcome back to the 6th week of my senior project blog! Put simply, this week I focused on comparing the survey findings to academic literature and datasets.
As mentioned in previous weeks, the primary barrier to NYC solar adoption according to the surveys is that most New Yorkers simply don't own their roofs. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they haven't installed solar because they don't own their property. This aligns with what researchers at Columbia University and NYSERDA found in a 2024 study, indicating that NYC's 67% renter rate creates a "split incentive" problem where landlords own the roof but tenants pay the electricity bill, so neither side has enough reason to act (Frontiers in Energy Research, 2024). Moreover, what made this finding stand out more was the metric of the percentage of people who would install solar out of those who do not currently have panels installed: when I asked if people would install solar if they could, 27 out of 29 said yes.
Beyond ownership, old building structures were cited by 21 respondents as a key physical barrier. This finding aligns with literature noting that much of NYC's pre-war housing stock requires costly roof work or electrical upgrades before panels can even be considered. (NYSERDA, 2020). Small roofs and shading from nearby buildings were also common complaints, problems the CUNY NY Solar Map identifies as fundamental constraints in dense urban environments that can reduce usable rooftop area dramatically compared to suburban settings. In fact, one respondent noted that their panels needed to be facing south in order to be installed.
Finally, cost was also a notable barrier. Installation cost was the top financial concern across the board. The challenge is that NYC's incentive landscape spanning the federal Investment Tax Credit, the NY State tax credit, the NYC Property Tax Abatement, and NYSERDA's NY-Sun rebate is spread across four different programs with different eligibility rules and timelines. Research on LMI homeowners found that confusion about incentive eligibility was a key reason households didn't proceed even when they wanted to (Frontiers in Energy Research, 2024).
Overall, through comparing my literature and survey findings, I have come to the conclusion that one of NYC's largest solar problems is a housing structure problem at its core. Until there are stronger mechanisms to bring landlords and building owners on board, solar adoption will remain unavailable for many, and in the upcoming weeks I plan to investigate how the city can provide stronger incentives to encourage solar installation across NYC.
Week 7: Electrons to Energy
Hello everyone and welcome to my 7th week of blogging! Upon wrapping up my data collection phase, I have started to create the final product for my senior project. For more context, my final product is a research paper that synthesizes both academic literature and my own survey data. This week, I focused primarily on outlining my paper, forming graphs, and drafting some of the sections of my paper.
For a brief overview, my paper is currently formatted as follows: 1. Introduction; 2. Literature Review; 3. Methodology; 4. Results; 5. Discussion of Key Barriers; 6. Limitations; 7. Policy & Strategy Recommendations; 8. Conclusion.
At the moment, I am certain of what I will write for parts 1 through 6. These sections will introduce my research question, explain why solar adoption in New York City is important, summarize existing academic literature, and describe how I collected and analyzed my survey data. Specifically, my literature review will focus on several major categories of barriers, including environmental and infrastructure limitations, zoning and permitting challenges, and economic barriers.
This week, I also began turning my survey responses into graphs. Some of the graphs I plan to include show respondents’ awareness of solar incentives, perceived barriers to installation, and overall interest in adopting solar energy. These visuals will help me compare the patterns in my survey data with the patterns discussed in the literature.
I am still developing parts 7 and 8 of the paper. For these sections, I am considering adding a case study of another city, such as San Diego, which has implemented solar adoption more effectively. This would allow me to compare New York City’s current approach with a different urban model and identify policies and strategies that could be adapted to NYC. Overall, I think this comparison could make my conclusion more practical by helping suggest realistic policy solutions. In the upcoming weeks, I plan to continue drafting the sections of my paper and decide whether or not I will include a case study of another city in my analysis. I look forward to keeping everyone updated!
Week 8: Beginning the Paper
Hey everyone, welcome back to week 8 of my blog. This past week was particularly demanding, as I had three AP exams, which took up a significant portion of my mental energy and time. While I did manage to get a decent amount of work done on my senior project, my progress was minimal compared to previous weeks.
To keep things brief on the exam front, they went reasonably well, and I am glad to have them behind me. With that weight off my shoulders, I was able to dedicate time near the end of the week to work on my senior project.
So far, I have completed both my introduction and my literature review. Writing the introduction was fairly straightforward. I had a clear sense of the direction I wanted to take, and after all the research I had done in prior weeks, articulating the purpose and scope of my project came naturally. Primarily, I focused on expressing why solar adoption remains important in cities, as they make up around 2/3 of global energy consumption.
The literature review required a bit more thought and organization. Initially, I was torn on which barriers to solar adoption I would focus on, as there are several factors that influence adoption in cities. After giving it some thought, however, I decided to focus on three: infrastructure, policy, and finance. Overall, I feel good about what I have written so far, and I am looking forward to continuing to work on it.
Week 9: Solar Data
Hello everyone, and welcome to my ninth week of blogging. After finishing my AP exams last week, I was finally able to spend more time focusing on my senior project. Last week, I focused on completing my introduction and literature review. This week, the majority of my work focused on analyzing the data and graphs I had created in the previous weeks.
One of the more notable statistics that caught my eye was the gap between interest and actual adoption when it comes to solar installation. A large majority of respondents said they would install solar if possible, yet very few currently have it, which raises the question of what barriers are standing in the way. That question shaped how I analyzed my other graphs.
Specifically, looking at the building type and ownership data helped answer part of that question. A significant portion of respondents live in apartment buildings, co-ops, or do not own their property, which are factors that make solar adoption more complicated. Put simply, if you do not own the roof or your property in general, it is not in your power to make the decision to install solar. Rather, it is up to the person who owns the rights to the building, and because of the high installation cost of solar, as well as the limited short-term financial return of rental properties, solar installation is often uneconomical for landlords.
Taken together, these graphs suggest that the interest in solar is genuinely there, but financial and primarily ownership-related obstacles are preventing installation. Toward the end of the week, I also began working on my presentation, which was a nice change of pace. I am still in the early stages, but I have a solid outline in place and am feeling confident about where it is headed. Looking forward to keeping you guys updated!
Week 10: Wrapping Up
Hello everyone, welcome back to my 10th week of blogging. These past couple of weeks, I have been dedicating most of my time to working on both my final paper and my senior project presentation. This week, I put the finishing touches on my paper and continued working on my final presentation.
Working on the last bits of my paper was pretty straightforward. I mainly worked on finishing up the discussion and writing my conclusion. Though a bit random, the hardest part, I found, was keeping track of all my sources while writing the paper, especially given the fact that I was managing multiple sources at the same time. Luckily, my on-site advisor recommended a tool for keeping track of my sources during this process: Zotero, and this helped a lot. If you're ever writing a research-heavy paper and struggling to stay organized, I'd definitely recommend checking it out. It made citing and managing references so much easier.
For the presentation, it was pretty easy after writing the paper, as I was able to use it as a guide when building out my slides. Having already spent so much time organizing my thoughts and findings on paper, translating everything into a visual format felt much more natural than I expected. I focused on keeping the slides pretty concise in terms of wording, only highlighting the key takeaways.
As I wrap up this project, it's a bit surreal to think about how much research I have done since starting it. I am excited to officially present my findings to you all in the coming weeks!
Week 11: Complete Integration
Hello everyone, and welcome to my final senior project blog. For those who have followed along throughout this process, thank you. This journey has been challenging in the best way possible, and it has pushed me to think more deeply about the integration of renewable energy and urban development.
When I started my first blog, I did not know nearly as much about solar energy as I do now. Going into this project, I already had a general interest in renewable energy research through past experiences, but I had never had this much autonomy over a project before. While I had conducted solar-related research in the past, this senior project challenged me to take ownership of the entire research process, from developing a question to collecting data, and, eventually, presenting my findings.
With the help of both of my advisors, I was able to successfully answer my research question: How do urban constraints, such as permitting issues, building infrastructure, and zoning regulations, influence solar energy adoption and installation in New York City, and to what extent do these factors differ between lower- and higher-income neighborhoods?
Put simply, I found that the solar barriers in NYC are caused by a combination of property ownership, permitting delays, zoning restrictions, and building infrastructure. Moreover, I found that these barriers do differ between neighborhoods. Lower-income neighborhoods appeared to face more compounding barriers associated with cost, property ownership, and administrative complexity. On the other hand, higher-income neighborhoods faced barriers more associated with structural and regulatory factors.
One of the biggest milestones of this project was giving my final presentation. At first, it felt intimidating to take months of research and organize it into a clear presentation, but it ended up being one of the most rewarding parts of the project. Presenting my findings allowed me to explain why solar energy truly matters, and my presentation can be found here.
Overall, this project taught me how to conduct research, interpret data, and communicate my ideas more clearly. Finally, I would like to thank my on-site advisor, Dr. Martha Lenio, and my faculty advisor, Sara Jones, for helping guide me throughout this process. I am grateful for their support and for everything I learned along the way.