Excerpt from Clean Technica, Cuomo Announces Mammoth Offshore Wind & Distributed Solar Increases, January 16th, 2019 | by Joshua S Hill
Focusing specifically on the renewable energy aspects of his policy promises, Governor Cuomo unveiled a plan to mandate 100% clean energy by 2040 — the most aggressive such goal in the United States which, if approved, would set a target five years earlier than California’s recently-adopted target. The cornerstone of the Governor’s plan is an increase to New York’s already successful Clean Energy Standard mandate, from 50% to 70% renewable electricity by 2030 which would include significant increases to specific technology targets.
Specifically, and most impressively, Governor Cuomo proposed quadrupling New York’s offshore wind target from 2.4 GW by 2030 to 9 GW by 2035 and doubling distributed solar deployment to 6 GW by 2025, up from 3 GW by 2023. Additionally, Cuomo proposed more than doubling new large-scale land-based wind and solar resources through the Clean Energy Standard, maximizing the contributions and potential of New York’s existing renewable resources, and deploying 3 GW of energy storage by 2030.
As part of the proposed plans to expand New York’s offshore wind energy target, Governor Cuomo is also planning expansions to the state’s ports, workforce development, and transmission infrastructure. Governor Cuomo is proposing investing $200 million into New York’s port infrastructure in an effort to unlock private supply chain capital and maximize long-term economic benefits through regional offshore wind development. The aim of the investment is to solidify New York’s position as the country’s leading offshore wind hub and would be the largest infrastructure commitment to offshore wind in the country.
The announcement of 16 new large-scale solar awards builds on the 22 solar projects selected last spring.
