Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that $13.5 million is available through the NY-Sun initiative for projects aimed at reducing the overall cost of installing photovoltaic (PV) solar electric systems and streamlining the inspection and permitting process for local officials. The NY-Sun initiative will seek to maximize private leverage and demonstrate business models that could be adopted at scale by the marketplace. In addition, this program will advance streamlining the procedures for permitting and interconnection to reduce PV balance-of-system (BOS) costs. Of the $13.5 million now available, $10 million will support efforts to lower the overall cost of non-module PV systems and $3.5 million will fund a two-year statewide effort to educate local officials and first responders. Projects will be selected on a competitive basis.