Dive Brief:

• The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority released its third competitive offshore wind solicitation on Wednesday for a minimum of 2 GW of clean energy, Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, announced.
• The solicitation includes a $500 million investment in offshore wind ports, manufacturing and infrastructure, which Hochul announced in her State of State address this year. Industry experts see the investment as a way for the state to secure its leadership as an offshore wind hub in the Northeast.
• The state currently has an offshore wind portfolio of five projects totaling about 4.3 GW, and the additional solicitation will move New York closer to its goal of 9 GW by 2035.

Dive Insight:

New York’s latest solicitation has a large focus on establishing supply chains for the growing industry, including new considerations from bidders.

The solicitation will include supply chain investment plans that “will utilize up to $300 million in New York State funding” for offshore port and supply chain infrastructure, marking the first phase of the state’s $500 million offshore wind infrastructure investment. It also looks at social, economic and technical factors, such as hiring from disadvantaged communities and trade unions, and investing in in-state manufacturers and logistics companies.

The focus on building out the clean energy workforce and supply chain are meant to establish the state as “the national hub of the offshore wind industry,” Hochul said in a statement.

“The clean energy transition is driving significant private investment and family-sustaining jobs in communities across the state, and we are setting ourselves up for success with a brighter and more sustainable future,” she said.

Bidders will receive priority, or “evaluation points,” for repurposing downstate energy infrastructure from fossil fuel generation and adding energy storage to the project, a win for advocacy groups that have called for a priority of communities around fossil fuel power plants.

“Environmental justice communities have been the reluctant hosts of polluting fossil fuel infrastructure for generations, and must be prioritized for clean energy investments in workforce development, local hiring, and community-ownership,” UPROSE Executive Director Elizabeth Yeampierre said in a statement.

Projects must also comply with the New York Buy American Act and purchase a minimum amount of U.S.-made steel for the development of the project.

The latest solicitation “provides a further opportunity to revolutionize our economy and continue to build a thriving offshore wind industry right here in New York as we continue to grow our nation-leading renewable energy project pipeline,” Doreen Harris, NYSERDA president and CEO, said in a statement.

In its request for proposals for offshore wind renewable energy credits, NYSERDA says the state’s efforts are “reinforced at the federal level” through the Biden administration’s goal to deploy offshore wind. The Department of the Interior had announced a number of offshore wind lease sales through 2025, including six lease areas awarded in February in the New York Bight with roughly 7 GW of resource potential, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The solicitation calls for a "meshed ready" offshore power transmission configuration, to facilitate the build-out of future projects and reduce grid costs. NYSERDA initiated a state cable assessment study to help identify offshore wind cable routes and key interconnection points for projects in active development and future capacity.

NYSERDA’s solicitation award decisions are expected in the first quarter of 2023.