Renewable energy programs in New York will help establish the state as a national leader in solar power capacity, the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his state was making a nearly $1 billion commitment to a solar power initiative. The so-called NY-Sun Initiative extends through 2023 and aims to increase the amount of solar power on the New York grid tenfold.

Kit Kennedy, a clean energy adviser at NRDC, said New York has already established itself as a national leader in terms of solar power capacity.

"This expansion will help exponentially increase that progress, taking us to a level never before seen in the state, and cementing New York as a national leader on solar power," she said in a statement Thursday.

Solar power installations in New York have increased exponentially since 2011 and a 32-megawatts facility in Long Island is the biggest of its kind in the region.

"For more than 100 years, the generation and distribution of electricity in New York has been largely unchanged, but today we taking a giant step from the status quo and leading the way on energy modernization," Cuomo said in a statement.

New York law requires that 30 percent of the electricity in the state comes from renewable energy by 2015. Most of its renewable power comes from hydroelectricity.