The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has awarded a power purchase agreement for a 290-MW wind project to be constructed in Steuben County to procure and accelerate renewable energy and advance Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s aggressive clean energy goals. This investment in large-scale clean energy promotes a private partnership and will provide employment and economic benefits to the Southern Tier community.
The Canisteo Wind Farm will be built on about 25,000 acres of private land being leased in Steuben County. According to NYPA, the new wind farm is expected to create an estimated 140 construction jobs and generate about $2.5 million per year in tax payments to the area.
“NYPA is eager to move forward with its first long-term supply contract with a private sector utility-scale renewable company,” said Gil C. Quiniones, NYPA president and CEO. “Accelerating our acquisition of renewable energy for the benefit of our customers via public-private partnerships is the way to go.”
NYPA’s Board of Trustees approved the award of a 20-year power purchase agreement to Canisteo Wind Energy for energy, capacity and renewable energy credits (RECs) generated from the wind project that would be developed and operated by Invenergy. Under the Clean Energy Standard, utilities and other energy suppliers are required to obtain a targeted number of RECs each year to help finance new renewable energy sources.
The Steuben County project, which could power 113,000 homes annually, is expected to be in service by the end of 2020.
The agreement will further advance Governor Cuomo’s recently announced Green New Deal. In his 2019 State of the State address, Governor Cuomo challenged New York to ramp-up its commitment to clean energy and achieve 70% of the state’s electricity needs with renewable sources by 2030 in an effort to achieve a 100% carbon-free system by 2040.
The Green New Deal is designed to significantly expand access to renewable energy while creating thousands of news jobs across New York. With these goals in mind, the power purchase agreement to Canisteo Wind Energy for energy, capacity and renewable energy credits (RECs) will create an estimated 140 construction jobs with more than 300 positions created indirectly and will generate about $2.5 million per year in tax payments to the area.
The Canisteo Wind award, which is a result of a 2017 competitive bidƒ solicitation, will be NYPA’s first transaction for a large-scale renewable project.The project was originally selected for a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) award in an effort to ensure that this highly viable and cost-effective project was committed toward the achievement of the State’s goals.
Transitioning the Canisteo contract to NYPA will allow the authority to deliver cost savings and price stability to customers, who will continue to have the opportunity to enter into bilateral agreements for energy, capacity and RECs from the Canisteo Wind project.
The agreement builds on NYSERDA’s announcement of awards to 19 other large-scale renewable energy projects. The awards were the second in a series of annual NYSERDA procurements to develop dozens of large-scale renewable energy projects under the Clean Energy Standard.
Collectively, these projects and the 26 projects awarded in NYSERDA’s first solicitation under the Clean Energy Standard account for 20% more new renewable capacity than was awarded under the decade-long Renewable Portfolio Standard, the predecessor to the Clean Energy Standard. New York has now awarded 46 projects, accelerating New York’s progress to meet the state’s unprecedented renewable energy goals within Governor Cuomo’s Green New Deal.
The Canisteo contract will allow NYPA to deliver cost savings and price stability to its customers, who will continue to have the opportunity to enter into bilateral agreements for energy, capacity and RECs from the Canisteo Wind project.
The Canisteo Wind Farm will be built on approximately 25,000 acres of private land being leased in Steuben County in the Southern Tier. The Canisteo site has been in development for several years and is near Invenergy’s operating 16-MW Marsh Hill Wind Farm that began operations in 2014.
Invenergy currently has more than 220 MW of operating wind projects in the state of New York, with another 1,000 MW of wind, solar, and battery storage projects in development across the state.
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