New York Announces Largest Clean Energy Funding of Any State $1.4B/RNN

Investing in green--time, money, resources--is the driver of building a sustainable future.  That is true for individuals, companies, communities and governments.   Here we see a good example as New York continues its strategy of pumping funding into key areas of sustainability, including energy.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, joined by Vice President Al Gore, announced that New York will make the single largest commitment to renewable energy by a state in U.S. history at $1.4 billion, which will advance 26 large-scale renewable energy projects across New York. The competitive awards, driven by the Governor’s Clean Energy Standard mandate, are expected to generate enough clean, renewable energy to power more than 430,000 homes and create over 3,000 short- and long-term well-paying jobs. In the face of a concerted federal assault from Washington, New York is taking aggressive action to protect our environment for future generations.

These projects advance the Clean Climate Careers initiative announced by Governor Cuomo in June 2017. The Clean Climate Careers initiative focuses on accelerating renewable energy and energy efficiency to make New York home to 40,000 new, good-paying clean energy jobs by 2020. With today’s historic investment, New York State will support over 3,000 short- and long-term, good quality jobs in construction, operation and maintenance that are anticipated to pay the prevailing wage for the region.

During the competitive selection process, bonus points were awarded to renewable energy projects that demonstrated a commitment to the creation of good local jobs and the use of locally-manufactured components and content. The rigorous, two-step review process also included non-price criteria to evaluate the applications. The criteria included scoring for the developer’s experience in constructing and financing renewable projects, the developer’s previous project development experience in New York, and the projects development status related to grid interconnection, permitting and site control. Proposals were reviewed and scored by a technical committee of professional independent evaluators. The response by 30 developers proposing 88 projects provided NYSERDA with the opportunity to select the best and most cost-effective proposals....

MORE AT RENEWABLE NOW.com