STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8694
IN SENATE
January 7, 2026
___________
Introduced by Sen. HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the public authorities law, in relation to requiring the
metropolitan transportation authority to install solar canopies on its
parking facilities
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The public authorities law is amended by adding a new
2 section 1266-n to read as follows:
3 § 1266-n. Solar canopies. 1. As used in this section, the following
4 terms shall have the following meanings:
5 (a) "Parking facility" shall mean a parking garage, open parking lot
6 or other parking facility owned and/or operated by the authority, that
7 offers parking spaces for the purposes of public use, employee use,
8 and/or pay-per-usage.
9 (b) "Solar canopy" shall mean a system designed to capture solar radi-
10 ation for the purpose of producing usable energy.
11 2. The authority shall calculate, in a manner developed by the author-
12 ity, the total amount of square kilometers occupied by parking facili-
13 ties suitable for solar canopy development within one year of the effec-
14 tive date of this section.
15 3. The authority shall utilize the data calculated pursuant to subdi-
16 vision two of this section to create a distributed solar energy goal to
17 use no less than seventy-five percent of eligible parking facility space
18 authority-wide for solar canopies by two thousand forty.
19 4. Beginning one year after the effective date of this section, any
20 construction project undertaken by the authority where the scope of such
21 project includes a parking garage, open parking lot or other parking
22 facility that offers parking spaces for the purposes of public use,
23 employee use or pay-per-usage or includes a parking garage, open parking
24 lot or other parking facility constructed by a private entity using
25 state capital funding shall install solar canopies in such facilities,
26 unless the authority has already reached the seventy-five percent goal
27 established pursuant to subdivision three of this section.
28 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14072-01-5
