New York Governor Kathy Hochul has launched a solicitation calling for 2GW of large-scale renewables projects in the state.
The solicitation, launched by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), calls for approximately 4.5 million MWh of renewable electricity per year, similar to the state’s fifth solicitation in 2021.
Eligible large-scale projects must have started commercial operations later than January 2015, while projects not yet in operation must reach commercial operation before May 2025, with an option to extend to May 2028. Awarded developers are expected to be notified in spring 2023.
Doreen Harris, CEO at NYSERDA, said: “Coming off a historic award group earlier this year, New York is moving ahead with full force as we look to build more large-scale renewable energy projects across the state in our march towards the state’s renewable energy goal and beyond.”
Last year’s competitive solicitation awarded 22 large-scale solar projects with a capacity of 2.4GW, with six projects co-located with 159MW of energy storage.
Governor Hochul said the public-private partnerships to build the projects in the latest round will lead to US$3 billion of investment in clean energy.
“Renewable energy is the backbone of New York’s sweeping approach to cleaning our electric grid and offers the industry a reliable path to join in our clean energy transition for the benefit of all New Yorkers,” she said.
The solicitation forms part of New York’s goal of obtaining 70% of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030, before reaching a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040.
New York recently approved a new framework for distributed solar in the state that will expand the NY-Sun initiative to support 10GW of distributed solar by 2030.
Community solar in New York will continue to lead all US states with more than 1.3GW of capacity expected to be added between 2022-2027.