New York Governor Kathy Hochul opened the state’s sixth round of tenders calling for 2,000 megawatts or more of new large-scale renewable energy projects. The projects will have the capacity to power at least 600,000 New York homes. Once selected, the development of these projects is expected to generate nearly $3 billion in clean energy investment.
Interested proposers can apply on NYSERDA’s Tier 1 Solicitations webpage. Applications for stage one eligibility must be submitted by November 16, 2022 at 3 p.m. ET.
NYSERDA expects to notify award-winning developers in the spring of 2023. Payments for these awards will not begin until projects have obtained all required permits and approvals and are operational to power New York.
Eligible projects include any large-scale renewable energy project that can be certified as Tier 1 renewable technology and entered into service after January 1, 2015. Participating projects that are not yet in operation must demonstrate that they are capable of reaching commercial operation in May 2025, with the possibility of extending until May 2028.
Notable Provisions in this Solicitation
• Establish a minimum purchase requirement for iron and steel in the United States.
• Require workers associated with the construction of any assigned facility to be paid the applicable prevailing wage.
• Encourage and preferentially evaluate developers who commit to using Minority and Women-Owned Businesses of New York State (MWBE) and Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses (SDVOB).
• Encourage proponents to avoid development on the highest quality agricultural land and to commit to co-use measures to support continued agricultural operations as well as funding to support regional agricultural operations.
• Ensure that the communities that will host successful projects are fully involved in the development process, and that proponents demonstrate a commitment to frequent and active community engagement.
• Continue to encourage proposals that cost-effectively combine renewable energy with energy storage technologies, including preferential evaluation of proposals that locate storage facilities in areas of the state that are primarily powered by fossil fuels to tackle the acute impacts of pollution that disadvantaged communities have borne disproportionately.
To date, New York has signed contracts with more than 120 new large-scale onshore renewable energy installations, including solar farms, onshore wind farms and hydroelectric facilities, some of which have been combined with energy storage. The projects selected under this solicitation are expected to generate approximately 4.5 million MWh of renewable electricity per year.
Have you checked out our YouTube page?
We have a ton of video interviews and additional content on our YouTube page. Recently we debuted Power forward! — a collaboration with BayWa re to discuss high-level industry topics as well as best practices/trends for running a solar business today.
Our longer side project is Field — in which we have awkward discussions with solar manufacturers and suppliers about their new technologies and ideas so you don’t have to. We discussed everything from residential trackless bridge attachment and home solar financing at large-scale energy storage value stacking and new utility house solar micro-grids + storage.
We also publish our Project of the year ads there! Interviews with this year’s winners will begin the week of November 8. Go ahead and subscribe today to stay up to date with all that extra stuff.