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Are you able to bear in mind all the best way again to December 19, 2022? That’s the day that New York’s Local weather Motion Council formally adopted its “Scoping Plan,” telling us all how we’re going to obtain, amongst different objectives, 70% of statewide electrical energy from renewable vitality sources by 2030 and a zero-emissions electrical energy system by 2040. The largest a part of the grand plan consists of some 9,000 MW (nameplate capability) of offshore wind generators to be constructed by 2035. As of the time of the Scoping Plan, the state claimed that some 4,300 MW out of the 9,000 MW of upcoming offshore wind initiatives have been beneath “energetic improvement.”
On the very day that the Scoping Plan acquired finalized, I had a put up titled “On To The Nice Future Of Offshore Wind Energy.” That put up famous that even of the 4.300 MW of offshore wind supposedly beneath “energetic improvement,” not one turbine was working, and even beneath development. A number of builders had made bids that had been accepted by the state, and a few of these builders have been getting sort of near making use of for permits. My prediction was: “Count on lengthy delays and calls for for tons extra money earlier than something will get constructed.” Boy, can I name these items.
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Simply ten days in the past, on October 5, I had an replace on offshore wind developments all through the Mid-Atlantic and New England. For New York, the information was that in September primarily all of the builders of the New York initiatives in “energetic improvement” had demanded large value will increase, starting from about 30% on the low finish to nearly 65% on the excessive finish. The brand new costs being demanded by the builders would now be between $140-190 per MWh, which might be at the very least double to greater than triple the costs charged by new pure fuel vegetation.
So how did that go over? To its credit score, the state Public Service Fee wasted no time in rejecting the worth hike calls for of the builders. On October 12 the Fee issued its resolution on the Petitions of the builders for value aid. Excerpt from the press launch:
The New York State Public Service Fee (Fee) as we speak denied petitions filed by a gaggle of offshore wind builders and a state renewable vitality commerce affiliation looking for billions of {dollars} in further funding from customers for 4 proposed offshore wind initiatives and 86 land-based renewable initiatives. In denying monetary aid, the Fee opted to protect the sturdy aggressive bidding course of that gives critically wanted renewable vitality sources to New York within the fairest and most cost-effective method that protects customers.
OK then, what occurs subsequent? The New York Instances has a write-up right here on October 12. The Instances quotes the Chair of the PSC, one Rory Christian, as standing up for the sanctity of the general public bidding course of:
Rory Christian, the chairman of the Public Service Fee, the state’s utility regulator, stated that offering aid to the successful bidders would set an untenable precedent. “Taking exception as we speak nearly ensures that we’ll be requested to do that once more sooner or later,” he stated. Mr. Christian added that the state’s ratepayers, who would have borne the associated fee, couldn’t function an “limitless piggy financial institution” for corporations to faucet. “We now have a deal,” he stated to the builders, calling on them to face by the phrases they agreed to.
Properly, Rory, I’ve acquired information for you: the builders aren’t going to honor the deal. You’re going to have to carry a brand new public sale. And the costs that can be bid can be as excessive or larger than these simply demanded by these builders.
Oh, after which don’t count on any new spherical of accepted bids to stay both. The builders will come again time and again for brand spanking new rounds of value will increase. What’s to cease them? In spite of everything, they have you ever over a barrel. You might have a “Local weather Act” and a “Scoping Plan” that mainly require you to construct out a grid powered by “renewables,” whether or not that’s possible or not, after which restrict your choices to principally offshore wind.
And in the meantime, till the subsequent spherical of bids is held, we’re again to sq. one. We now have a statutory requirement of 70% of our electrical energy from “renewables” by 2030, and a “Scoping Plan” that sees that aim being achieved largely by way of offshore wind generators. And we have now not one single working offshore wind turbine, nor any beneath development, nor, after the latest contract repudiations, any actively transferring by way of the allowing course of. Not less than for now, the entire thing is useless within the water.
The Instances quotes a man named Fred Zalcman, director of the New York Offshore Wind Alliance:
[T]he fee’s resolution “places these initiatives in critical jeopardy and offers a doubtlessly deadly blow to the progress these initiatives have made. . . .”
By the best way, the costs lately demanded by the offshore wind builders, within the vary of $140-190/MWh, don’t embody something for the transmission upgrades wanted to ship this energy into the grid, nor something for the storage or back-up wanted to remodel intermittent wind energy right into a helpful 24/7 useful resource. The earlier we pull the plug on this entire endeavor, the higher. However we are actually solely within the first phases of the collapse.
UPDATE, October 16, 2023: In the meantime, I ought to have talked about that New York Metropolis condo buildings stay beneath a mandate from “Native Regulation 97” to transform to electrical warmth by 2030 or face massive fines. The electrical energy is meant to return from the offshore wind farms that, in the meanwhile, are fully suspended. Go to the hyperlink within the sidebar to take heed to Jane’s podcast on this topic.
