This startup is turning roofs of New York rent-stabilized buildings into an enormous, distributed power plant

Fieldston Power helps apartment buildings install solar panels that they otherwise couldn’t afford—and helps lower electric bills for New Yorkers. At an aging seven-story apartment building in the South Bronx, the landlord recently faced an expensive problem: a leaking roof. The repairs were pricey enough, and installing solar panels wasn’t on the agenda. But a couple of months earlier, the building partnered with a startup that took care of both at no cost to the owner—financing roof remediation through a rooftop solar project that now sells power to the grid.