S 8694: Requires the metropolitan transportation authority to install solar canopies on its parking facilities.

  
  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