Lawmakers and advocates disappointed by Power Authority's renewable plan
ALBANY — Renewable energy advocates want the New York Power Authority to take greater responsibility and bolder action to meet clean energy targets.
Legislation directing the authority to invest in renewable energy projects to assist the state in meeting clean energy mandates was passed in 2023. The authority spent more than a year identifying projects to invest in and gathering public feedback.
The result has been a plan finalized earlier this month to take majority stakes in 45 renewable energy projects and 146 energy storage projects encompassing 5.5 gigawatts of power. That’s a reduction from a July draft of the plan which included 7 gigawatts of renewable energy. More may be added to the plan as the authority continues to search for opportunities to invest in renewable energy projects.
The feedback on that change has included outrage.
“I don’t think they (the authority) care about the state’s climate goals being delayed,” said Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha, a Kingston Democrat.
Progressive elected officials, including Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, want the authority to build 15 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030 to ensure the state complies with the mandates of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The Climate Act requires the state use 70% renewable energy by the end of the decade.
“No more letting corporations, billionaires, and Donald Trump design our energy system,” Delgado said in September.
As of September, New York had produced around 10 gigawatts of wind and solar power this year. Advocates are asking the state to increase production of those resources by 150% within the next five years.
Renewable energy has expanded at frenetic rates in some states. Florida, Arizona and California all added about five gigawatts of solar and wind energy in the last year, according to Energy Information Administration data.
“We need the governor and the power authority to embrace the task and not offer a series of excuses for why it’s too hard,” said Michael Paulson, associate director of the Sane Energy Project, an organization advocating for New York to use 100% publicly owned power.
Paulson pointed to the power authority’s sterling “AA” credit rating as a way to access affordable financing to invest in more projects.
“The easiest way to inject low-cost, clean, affordable local energy into the wholesale (energy) market is for (the Authority) to get aggressive,” Shrestha said.
The power authority didn’t arbitrarily cancel projects as part of a partisan agenda.
“No projects were removed by our own decision but by the developers that own the projects,” said Christopher Hutson, senior vice president of development at the power authority.
The authority itself isn’t developing the projects alone, except in a few minor cases. It’s providing financial support and expertise to projects already in the development pipeline. The power authority can’t control whether a developer follows through or whether the economics of a plan have fallen apart.
Many projects are also being canceled for reasons beyond the authority’s control. Some dropped because they weren’t progressing fast enough to take advantage of expiring federal solar and wind tax credits. Others faced astronomical costs to upgrade the surrounding electric system so they could connect to the grid.
Also, the power authority is required to take at least a 51% ownership stake in a project. That “presents limitations” on investments because a developer has to be willing to give majority interest and move through a slower timeline, Hutson said.
“Despite strong headwinds threatening the viability of renewables projects throughout the nation, (the Authority) continues to leverage its expertise and reputational strength to develop projects that will bolster the energy diversity of New York’s electric grid,” said New York Power Authority president and CEO Justin E. Driscoll.
The authority’s reduction in investment “indicates thoughtfulness on their part, not a lack of ambition as some have leveled against them,” said Marguerite Wells, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, an advocacy group representing many of the state’s large renewable energy developers.
“It also shows that public ownership in and of itself is not a panacea against the challenges of developing projects in New York,” Wells continued.
Paulson, the public power advocate, said he’d like to see the power authority focus more on “self-developed projects that do not rely so much on private developers.”
The power authority is planning to spend about $1.2 billion over the next four years to build the wind, solar and battery storage facilities. About one-third of the funds are from debt, with the remaining from tax credits, state funds appropriated by the Legislature and existing power authority funds. Billions more would have to be borrowed if the authority were to take full ownership over projects and build significantly more.
“This updated plan is only a snapshot of our ongoing efforts, and (the Authority) will continue to assess the state’s addressable renewables market to identify new projects that can be added into future plans,” Driscoll said.
To encourage greater public ownership and development, Democrats in the Legislature are pushing a bill to expand the power authority’s board of trustees from seven members to 17. Both the Assembly speaker and Senate majority leader would appoint five members. Two of the speaker’s selections must come from organized labor. The majority leader must choose an expert in “renewable energy siting” and “building electrification.”
The current seven-member board is selected by the governor with legislative approval.
Expanding the board will ensure that the “people who are leading the (power authority) are actually aligned on the state’s responsibility to meet our climate goals,” Shrestha said.
Investigative Reporter
Ezra Bitterman is a Joseph T. Lyons Investigative Fellow for the Times Union. He is from Los Angeles and studied Journalism at the University of Missouri. Ezra previously reported for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Columbia Missourian and Euractiv. He's reachable at Ezra.Bitterman@TimesUnion.com.
Democrats say state is failing to build publicly owned power
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