New York is planning a step back and a change of focus for a renewables program that never gained traction in the five years after it was launched.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority on Oct. 1 proposed to the Department of Public Service (15-E-0302) that the Build-Ready Program be terminated as a ratepayer-funded program and changed to an economic development model funded through other means.
Build-Ready was launched in October 2020 to develop a roster of turn-key plans that would place renewable generation on sites such as landfills, abandoned industrial areas and dormant generation facilities that could be sold to developers. Proceed from the sales would fund the next developments, and the program would become self-sustaining.
NYSERDA did an initial review of 16,400 parcels, narrowed that down to 3,400 sites and then identified 480 potential locations. But for a variety of reasons, all 480 were unworkable.
After nearly five years of effort at a cost of $15.6 million, Build-Ready’s one tangible result was a 12-MW solar project on the tailings pile of a defunct mine, sold to a developer in early 2025. (See Results Elusive in N.Y. Build-Ready Renewables Program.)
But in its five-year report to the DPS, NYSERDA identified some other results of Build-Ready: an interactive geographic information system and standardized database of all the sites it reviewed; a team that has developed expertise in photovoltaic solar project origination and development; and a template for partnership with other agencies, governments and organizations.
NYSERDA said the institutional knowledge gained through Build-Ready on interconnection, economics, leasing schemes and permitting is proving useful to other programs it and other agencies are pursuing. The agency proposes to meet Build-Ready’s statutory requirements by encouraging siting and development of renewable energy and storage on challenging sites.
Asked for clarification, a NYSERDA spokesperson said the program would continue to accept and evaluate site suggestions but focus on economic development opportunities, a shift it anticipates will give projects a better chance of coming to fruition.
This will include work with outside economic agencies: A memorandum of understanding is in place with the state’s economic development arm, Empire State Development, for Build-Ready to support its POWER UP and FAST NY programs.
The role now proposed for Build-Ready is to support economic development by optimizing siting and development of new loads; expanding existing loads; and helping investigate incorporation of clean energy technologies into economic development projects, the spokesperson said.
In a 2020 order, the Public Service Commission gave Build-Ready a $71.8 million budget, most of it from the ratepayer-financed Clean Energy Fund. NYSERDA spent only $15.6 million through Aug. 31, 2025, and in its Oct. 1 proposal, it said it would repay the CEF money through other funding streams and move forward without ratepayer money.
Build-Ready’s problems sprang from its central mission: design an inherently challenging and expensive project in a financially sustainable manner, then get it fully permitted and sell it.
“Build-Ready has determined that very few sites in New York state both meet the program’s numerous requirements (e.g. previously developed site, no agricultural land, no competition with the private sector) and also support economically viable large-scale renewable energy projects,” NYSERDA wrote.
Along the way, state leaders created in-house competition in 2023 by directing the New York Power Authority to take on a role as a renewable energy developer. And federal leaders in 2025 have made renewables much more expensive by adding tariffs and eliminating tax credits.
“Given this new policy paradigm in which Build-Ready must operate,” NYSERDA wrote, “developing economically viable Build-Ready solar PV projects going forward will be even more difficult.”
