As part of New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) strategy, $160 million in funding is being made available to support public-private sector partnerships in clean energy projects. Funding will be administered competitively.
The funding will support significant private investment in renewable energy sources such as wind farms, fuel cells, biomass facilities, renewable biogas and the upgrading of small- to medium-sized hydropower projects that provide power to the electric grid.
Contracts for these projects will be awarded for a term of up to 20 years. Recognizing the maturation of fuel cell equipment, for the first time ever, fuel cell projects will also be eligible for 20-year contracts.
Support for these new grid-based projects will be provided by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) through the Main Tier of the State's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which is New York's primary policy to promote the development of new, large-scale renewable energy resources.
NYSERDA's previous nine RPS Main Tier solicitations for large-scale renewable projects have resulted in about 2,036 MW of installed capacity at 65 projects that, once operational, will generate more than five million MWh of renewable energy annually. Another Main Tier solicitation is expected to be released in 2016.
