In 2020, New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) will issue its second solicitation for offshore wind facilities. This solicitation is expected to yield at least an additional 1,000 megawatts of clean power, and perhaps substantially more. NYSERDA’s solicitation will be designed to capture the rapidly falling costs of offshore wind energy and deliver significant economic value to New Yorkers in the form of affordable, reliable new clean energy, while creating thousands of new jobs in the burgeoning offshore wind industry. NYSERDA, Department of Transportation (DOT) and Empire State Development (ESD) will also initiate a competitive process to award $200 million in public investments in port infrastructure improvements.
The awards will be structured to maximize accompanying private investment and to attract the manufacturing, assembly and maintenance of offshore wind equipment to New York. The agencies conducted a Request for Expressions of Interest process in 2019, yielding over 10 promising proposals. They will issue a competitive Request for Proposals early in 2020 to build upon the momentum from initial private developer commitments to New York port upgrades of over $87 million announced in 2019.
Liz Burdock, President and CEO of the Business Network for Offshore Wind states, “We thank the Governor and NYSERDA for committing to holding their second solicitation for at least 1 gigawatt (GW) in 2020. This, along with New Jersey’s second RFP scheduled for 2020, mean it will be another exciting year for offshore wind in the New York-New Jersey area.”