New York State Governor Kathy Hochul held a press conference to announce the release of the state’s sixth competitive solicitation, calling for 2,000 megawatts or more of new large-scale renewable energy projects.
Once completed, these projects will be able to power at least 600,000 New York homes and are expected to bring nearly $3 billion in clean energy investments. Additionally these projects will create over 2,000 family-sustaining jobs in the clean energy industry. This accelerates the goal of obtaining 70 percent of statewide electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.
“Renewable energy is the backbone of New York’s sweeping approach to cleaning our electric grid and offers the industry a reliable path to join in our clean energy transition for the benefit of all New Yorkers,” Governor Hochul said on Sept 21. “The strong public-private partnerships formed to build these projects will allow us not only to drastically lower emissions in our fight against climate change but will result in thousands of new green jobs, billions of dollars in economic growth, and an injection of private investment into local communities.”
The Governor also announced that four gigawatts of distributed solar energy have been installed in New York, with the largest single-rooftop solar array located in Manhattan on the Javits Center’s green roof.
Statewide distribution of solar energy from this project will power over 710,000 homes, and will exceed the state’s goal of six gigawatts of solar energy by 2025 and accelerate progress towards 10 gigawatts of solar energy by 2030.
Since the launch of the NY-Sun initiative, the cost of solar in New York has decreased by 70 percent while solar deployment has increased by nearly 2,900 percent statewide, all while helping to drive $6.4 billion in private investment and foster more than 12,000 jobs across the state.
“This achievement is a testament to our successful partnership with communities and industry alike to get these projects built in every corner of the state and ensures more families and businesses will benefit from clean affordable solar power for years to come,” said the Governor. “I am proud to make today’s announcement from the Javits Center, which is now home to Manhattan’s largest single-rooftop solar array with an accompanying battery storage system and is setting an example for other urban commercial buildings of how to be on the cutting-edge of our clean energy future.”
The 1,400 solar panels on the Javits Center’s green roof will be supplemented by a 3.5-megawatt battery storage system and this project is the result of a partnership between the Javits Center, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Siemens Industry, Inc.
Joining Governor Hochul was New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who applauded the new projects launched by Governor Hochul and spoke to how partnerships between the two states would help combat climate change in the entire region.
“Our states are not competing with each other, I like to think of this as a cross-country meet; it’s not about the individual times, it’s about the team score,” said Governor Murphy. “And while we’re still running for personal bests, we don’t win unless we each pull each other along so that the team wins. I’ve said this for far too long that the American people have been fed a false narrative that we can either focus on the environment or the economy – but not both. What each of our administrations are proving, and what the Biden administration is proving alongside of us, is how dead wrong that thinking is.”
