The New York Power Authority (NYPA), the state’s public power organization, recently released an updated renewable energy strategy, significantly raising its targeted installed capacity from the original 3.3 gigawatts (GW) to 6.6GW. This revision comes in response to widespread criticism that the initial draft plan was insufficiently ambitious.
According to the newly released Renewable Energy Strategy Update, NYPA will advance a portfolio of solar, wind, and energy storage projects totaling 7GW in the future. The original draft published in January of this year had only outlined 3.3GW of capacity, with solar projects accounting for 2.8GW.
The updated draft adds 17 new solar arrays, 3 wind power projects, and 156 energy storage systems (including 4 standalone storage projects), contributing an additional 3.8GW of installed capacity. It also strengthens the project deployment in the southern region of New York State.
This adjustment stems from increasing social pressure. NYPA’s initial plan was criticized for being only one-fifth of what the public and organizations had expected. In a statement, the Public Power NY Coalition noted that NYPA had failed to provide a sufficient explanation for why it had initially planned for only 3.3GW.
