EGN NEWS DESK
The state fee denied builders’ requests for extra money, saying that awarding greater funds would price ratepayers billions of {dollars} and undermine the aggressive bidding course of. So in January, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) launched a fourth and expedited public sale to offer corporations a probability to rebid their initiatives — and, crucially, to interchange current contracts with new ones with out penalty.
The awards introduced on Thursday are the results of that course of. They’re additionally nonetheless conditional and beneath negotiation between NYSERDA and builders.
State officers stated that, for the 2 profitable initiatives, the weighted common all-in improvement price is $150.15 per megawatt-hour over the lifetime of the contracts. That’s considerably greater than the initiatives’ all-in improvement price of $83.36 per MWh introduced in October 2019, when NYSERDA finalized the primary contracts for Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind.
The common invoice affect for residential clients is now anticipated to be about $2.09 per thirty days, up from 73 cents per thirty days beneath the unique agreements.
“This is a promising new starting for Empire Wind, and we’re able to get began,” Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables America, stated on Thursday in a assertion. The firm expects to start delivering electrical energy from the mission in 2026.
Equinor opted to not rebid its second offshore wind mission, the 1,260 MW Empire Wind 2 farm, after canceling its current contract with NYSERDA in January. Instead, Empire Wind 2 might be “matured for future solicitation rounds,” the corporate introduced. Its former accomplice, BP, didn’t point out that it deliberate to rebid the Beacon Wind offshore wind farms within the newest public sale.
Danish power large Ørsted introduced that, after at the moment’s profitable rebid, it can purchase Eversource’s 50 p.c possession share in Sunrise Wind, which is slated to be accomplished in 2026.
Ørsted is one in all solely two builders that at the moment operates a industrial offshore wind farm within the United States. The firm owns the 30 MW Block Island wind farm close to Rhode Island, and earlier this month, Ørsted stated it had put in the ultimate wind turbine at its 132-megawatt South Fork Wind farm close to Long Island, which is already sending electrical energy to the grid. Meanwhile, onshore development is underway on Ørsted’s 704 MW Revolution Wind farm, which can provide electrical energy to Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Just final week, the developer Avangrid stated it had powered 5 offshore wind generators working close to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The mission is now offering 68 megawatts of renewable power to the New England grid, out of what’s going to finally develop into 806 megawatts when development is full.
