New York Awards Contracts for Three Offshore Wind Projects - Bloomberg
New York Awards Contracts for Three Offshore Wind Projects - Bloomberg
New York Awards Contracts for Three Offshore Wind Projects
- State supplying $300 million for two blade, nacelle factories
- Regulators rejected other developers’ bid to renegotiate deals
New York is aiming to have 9 gigawatts of offshore wind power in service by 2035. Photographer: Stephane Mahe/AFP/Getty Images
New York has selected three offshore wind farms to negotiate power contracts with the state as the industry faces increasing challenges from rising costs.
The contracts are part of a sweeping set of awards that also include 22 onshore renewable energy projects and will lead to the installation of as much as 6.4 gigawatts of clean energy, according to a statement Tuesday. That’s expected to be enough to power 2.6 million homes.
Have a confidential tip for our reporters? Get in Touch
Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal
LEARN MORE
Up Next
New York Awards Contracts for Three Offshore Wind Projects
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.