(Photo Credit: John Getchel, Flickr Creative Commons)New York Governor Andrew Cuomo included $1.2 billion for renewable energy projects in the 2019 Executive Budget for the state. The investment is part of a broader multibillion-dollar Green New Deal aimed at completely eliminating the state’s carbon footprint.
Cuomo’s agenda calls for 100% carbon-free power by 2040, $1.5 billion to be invested in competitive awards that support 20 large-scale solar, wind, and energy storage projects across upstate New York, and as much as $200 million in port infrastructure to match private sector investment in regional development of offshore wind.
The governor says that the ramp-up of renewables under his Green New Deal will include:
Early last year, Cuomo unveiled an agenda combatting climate change that called for developing offshore wind projects totaling at least 800 MW, investing $200 million in an energy storage target of 1,500 MW by 2025, funding zero-cost solar for low income New Yorkers, and adopting regulations to close all coal plants.
The Green New Deal’s $1.5 billion investment in large-scale projects is expected to add more than 1,650 MW of capacity and generate more than 3,800,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy annually, according to the governor’s office. These new projects, when combined with ones previously announced under the Clean Energy Standard, represent an investment of more than $2.9 billion in 46 projects statewide.
“While the federal government shamefully ignores the reality of climate change and fails to take meaningful action, we are launching the first-in-the-nation Green New Deal to seize the potential of the clean energy economy, set nation's most ambitious goal for carbon-free power, and ultimately eliminate our entire carbon footprint,” Cuomo said.
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