Solar panels installed on a New York City home by Solar Pro

NYSERDA NY-Sun Rebates: A Homeowner’s Guide

Updated July 2026. For more than a decade, the NY-Sun Megawatt Block program was the first incentive any New York solar salesperson mentioned: a straight per-watt rebate from NYSERDA, taken off your price before you ever paid it. In 2026 the picture has changed, and a lot of quotes floating around New York City still have not caught up. Here is exactly what NY-Sun is, what a NYC homeowner can and cannot claim right now, and what actually carries the savings today.

What NY-Sun and the “Megawatt Block” really are

NY-Sun is NYSERDA’s statewide solar program. Its rebate engine is the Megawatt Block: the state divides New York into regions — Con Edison (which covers all five boroughs and Westchester), Upstate, and Long Island — and assigns each region a block of megawatts at a set dollars-per-watt incentive. As installers submit projects, the block fills. When it is full, the next block opens at a lower rate. Step by step, the incentive declines to zero as the market matures.

Two details surprise homeowners. First, the rebate never arrives as a check to you. It is paid to a NYSERDA-approved contractor, who is required to show it as a line-item discount on your contract. Second, your eligibility is locked at the block that is open on the day your application is submitted — not the day you sign, and not the day the panels go up.

The 2026 reality for NYC: the standard residential block is closed

This is the part most 2026 quotes get wrong. In the Con Edison region — every home in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and Manhattan — the standard-income residential Megawatt Block closed on May 29, 2025. Block 10 was the last one, and it paid $0.15 per watt. On an 8 kW system that was about $1,200.

There is no Block 11. If your household income is above the affordable-solar threshold, there is currently no NY-Sun per-watt rebate available to you in New York City. Any 2026 proposal showing a NYSERDA residential rebate for a standard-income NYC homeowner is quoting a program that closed over a year ago — ask the salesperson to show you the open block on NYSERDA’s Con Edison dashboard, and watch what happens.

Losing $1,200 stings less than it sounds. At $0.15/W the block had already declined to roughly 4% of a typical system cost. The incentives that actually move the number in NYC are elsewhere, and they are still fully intact.

What NY-Sun still pays for

Affordable Solar Residential Incentive — $0.80/W. Income-eligible households (generally at or below 80% of Area Median Income) qualify for a substantially larger incentive than the standard block ever paid: $0.80 per watt in the Con Edison region. On an 8 kW system that is about $6,400 off the contract price. AMI limits vary by household size and county, so check your specific numbers rather than assuming you do not qualify — NYC’s AMI figures are higher than most people expect.

EmPower+. For lower-income households, NYSERDA’s EmPower+ program layers no-cost energy efficiency work — insulation, air sealing, appliances — and in some cases solar itself. If you qualify for Affordable Solar, ask about EmPower+ in the same conversation.

Nonresidential blocks. Co-ops, condos, multifamily buildings, houses of worship and commercial properties are on a separate track from one-to-three family homes, and those blocks have continued past the residential ones. If you sit on a co-op or condo board, NY-Sun is very much still on the table for your building even though it has closed for individual homeowners.

What carries the savings in NYC now

With the residential block closed and the 30% federal residential credit expired on December 31, 2025, three incentives do the real work for a NYC homeowner:

New York State solar tax credit — 25% of system cost, capped at $5,000, claimed on Form IT-255. Unusually, it can apply to leased systems as well as purchased ones.
NYC solar property tax abatement — 30% of system cost credited against your property tax bill over four years. It requires a PTA4 filing signed by a licensed engineer or architect, due by March 15. See our full abatement guide.
Con Edison net metering — the credit for everything you export. With Con Edison rates where they are, this is the largest lifetime number on the page, and no legislature has to renew it.

If the upfront cost is the obstacle, Solar Pro offers $0-down lease and prepaid-lease options. In that structure the financing company owns the system and claims the available federal credit itself, passing the benefit through to you as a lower payment — you get the panels and the Con Edison savings without writing a check at installation.

How to check your own eligibility

Ask any installer three questions in writing: Which NY-Sun block are you applying my project to, and is it open today? Am I income-eligible for Affordable Solar, and did you check? Who files my PTA4, and by when? An honest answer to all three tells you more about a company than any brochure.

Solar Pro is a NYSERDA-approved contractor. We check Affordable Solar eligibility on every NYC job, file the NY-Sun paperwork and the PTA4, handle DOB and FDNY permits and the Con Edison interconnection, and give you the documentation you need for Form IT-255 at tax time.

Solar Pro — 139 Stuyvesant Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11221. NABCEP-certified, BBB A+ rated, 5.0 stars. Solar and roofing under one roof.

Call (718) 962-7699 for a free assessment, or request a quote online.

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. NY-Sun block status, incentive rates and income thresholds change — confirm current figures on NYSERDA’s Con Edison dashboard and with a qualified tax professional before relying on them.