Establishes sales tax exemptions for commercial energy storage systems equipment.
Summary
This bill, titled the “Build NY Storage Act,” creates a new sales tax exemption for commercial energy storage systems equipment and the costs of installing those systems. The exemption applies to equipment installed on non-residential premises that stores electricity for later use to provide heating, cooling, hot water, and/or electricity. It also exempts receipts from sales of electricity generated by qualifying commercial energy storage systems when sold under certain written agreements involving equipment owned by someone other than the purchaser and installed on the purchaser’s non-residential premises.
The bill also amends related tax law provisions governing local sales taxes so that cities and counties generally must treat the new commercial energy storage exemption the same way they treat other state sales tax exemptions, unless they affirmatively choose otherwise where permitted. In addition, it expands the definition of “other covered project” under the Public Service Law and the Labor Law to include certain grid-connected qualified energy storage systems over five megawatts, and it extends labor peace agreement and apprenticeship-related requirements to some energy storage projects that receive public contracts or incentives. The bill is designed to support deployment of large-scale energy storage while tying some public support to labor standards.
Impact
The bill would amend the Tax Law, Public Service Law, and Labor Law. On the tax side, it adds a new exemption in section 1115 for commercial energy storage equipment, installation costs, and certain electricity sales tied to those systems, and it updates local sales tax provisions in section 1210 to account for that exemption. On the energy and labor side, it brings certain grid-connected energy storage projects into existing statutory frameworks for covered projects, labor peace agreements, and apprenticeship requirements, thereby affecting project eligibility for public incentives and the labor conditions attached to them.
Sentiment
The available record shows no committee transcript and no recorded votes, so there is no documented floor or committee debate to gauge detailed sentiment. Based on the bill text and sponsor list, the measure appears to be a pro-clean-energy, pro-industry incentive bill with broad support among its introducers. Its structure suggests a generally favorable policy posture toward energy storage development, especially for commercial and grid-scale projects.
Contention
The main points of potential contention are likely to be fiscal and regulatory rather than conceptual. The sales tax exemption reduces tax revenue and may be viewed as a subsidy for commercial energy storage developers and purchasers. The labor provisions may also draw scrutiny from stakeholders concerned about added compliance burdens, especially the labor peace agreement and apprenticeship requirements tied to public contracts or incentives. At the same time, labor organizations and supporters of prevailing labor standards would likely favor those conditions as a safeguard for workers on publicly supported projects.