A spate of newly completed renewable energy projects in upstate New York — most recently, a wind farm on Friday — have brought the state 421 MW closer to its net-zero goal.
And downstate, after 22 years of buildout, the New York City area has surpassed 500 MW of installed solar capacity, most of it several kilowatts at a time on rooftops.
The progress upstate was announced Tuesday and keyed to Earth Week, as the eight recently completed projects are expected to reduce carbon emissions by nearly 600,000 tons a year.
The venue for the announcement was Grissom Solar, a 100-acre, 20-MW solar facility near Johnstown that was completed a month ago. Three other solar farms and three wind farms have been completed since last autumn and a small hydro facility was returned to service.
Dozens of additional projects are envisioned across the fields and hilltops of upstate New York as the state works to meet its statutory goals of 70% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% emissions-free energy by 2040.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has a lead role in the process, not least by soliciting and contracting the projects.
“Accelerating the development and completion of the dozens of wind and solar projects in our pipeline will continue to be a priority for NYSERDA,” NYSERDA President Doreen Harris said in a statement.
Progress has been steady if not blazingly fast. The eight recently completed projects celebrated Tuesday were awarded contracts in 2016 and 2017. New York has modified the process since then, creating the Office of Renewable Energy Siting to streamline the review of large renewable projects.
The 120 large-scale renewable energy and transmission projects now in New York’s pipeline total 14.2 GW, enough to bring the state to within a few percentage points of its 70% renewable goal if all were completed.
Many, of course, will not be built. Nevertheless, NYSERDA expects to announce contract awards in the summer for projects totaling at least 2 GW as a result of its sixth competitive solicitation.
Also on Tuesday, Con Edison (NYSE:ED) announced the solar generation owned by its customers in New York City and adjacent Westchester County has surpassed 500 MW of combined capacity.
Much of the densely built area is unsuitable for large-scale solar development. The 500 MW of capacity is spread among more than 55,000 individual solar systems.
New York City’s Queens borough, with its many low-rise neighborhoods, hosts 18,501 of those systems, while high-rise Manhattan has just 388. Suburban Westchester County, with its smaller population and lower density, has 44% fewer solar installations than Queens, but its total capacity is 5% higher, indicating larger installations are more common there.
“In spite of the obvious challenges for solar in the New York City region, with limited space and a dense population, the solar market continues to find ways to innovate and grow,” Con Edison distributed generation ombudsman Joe White said in a news release. “Solar energy saves customers money, creates local jobs and is a critical tool in New York’s fight against climate change.”
Progress to the 500-MW mark initially was slow but has been accelerating.
Con Edison said the first solar system was connected to its distribution grid in 2001, and it took 15 years to reach 100 MW combined capacity. In 2022, by contrast, a record 89 MW was installed.
The utility said it expects installations to continue at a similar or greater rate over at least the next decade.
