New York eyes London offshore wind lessons

New York or London: which is better? It’s a thorny debate but, in reality, there is more to connect these cities than divide them.

And, this week, it became clear that policymakers in New York are seeing what they can learn from their counterparts in London as they seek to grow in offshore wind.

You can’t have missed the announcement. On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo launched a masterplan about how the state could support the construction of 2.4GW of offshore wind farms in its waters by 2030.

In the process, he wants to build an offshore wind industry in New York State that would generate investment of $6bn and support 5,000 jobs within the next ten years; and help the state to raise the proportion of electricity it gets from renewables to 50% by 2030.

Not to be outdone, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy yesterday signed an order to accelerate the development of 3.5GW of wind farms in its own waters by 2030. Not that it's a contest!

There is a lot of work that has gone into New York's plan. It is the result of two years’ research by New York State Energy Research & Development Authority, which has carried out 20 studies on the environmental, social and other impacts of its plan. And, crucially, it is looking at how best to procure and financially support schemes.

This is where New York’s policymakers are looking closely at their counterparts in London – or, more precisely, those in the UK civil service. It turns out NYSERDA is strongly considering pursuing a system of backing offshore wind farms that is similar to the UK’s.

That information is contained in a separate document, ‘Offshore Wind Policy Options Paper’, which runs to 117 pages and so, naturally, only select bits featured in the full masterplan.

However, it goes into a lot of interesting detail on how New York State is looking to procure offshore wind farms and transmission links, and the role the New York Green Bank can play in backing the industry in its early growth stages.

NYSERDA has rightly identified that one of the early challenges for growing a successful offshore wind sector is how to encourage investors to back projects that cost more up front than other clean energy projects; and where a supply chain is still in its infancy. This is why it is considering seven possible procurement options.

We don’t have the space to go into all of these options here. They are set out in detail on pages 23 to 43 of that supporting paper.

But it is worth noting that the option NYSERDA is most positive about at this stage is called Index OREC [Ocean Renewable Energy Credit], which would be similar to the UK’s Contracts for Difference. It “draws on the renewables procurement structure introduced in the United Kingdom,” the document says.

Importantly, it is the only option in which NYSERDA sees no major downsides. This system offers limited implementation challenges; significant hedging benefits; low cost of finance; and benefits that would support local ratepayers. It isn’t a final decision, but it is a good indication of the direction New York is going.

The options paper also looks at transmission. Again, it seems that New York favours a system where transmission links are developed in tandem with the wind farm, by the same firms. The developer could then hold onto the link and operate it; or could sell it on to a third-party operator, which would be similar to the UK’s Offshore Transmission Owner [OFTO] regime.

Finally, it said that the New York Green Bank could play a vital role in supporting the commercialisation of offshore wind. The parallel with the role played by the UK Green Investment Bank, now owned by Macquarie, is clear. The NY Green Bank is in a great position to support projects on commercial terms while private rivals get comfortable with the risks of investing in this fledgling sector.

New York is building a strong base so it can procure 800MW of offshore wind farms in 2018 and 2019; and it plans to start its first request for tenders this year. If it takes experience from London to help put this in place, so much the better – even if it means that our colleagues this side of the Atlantic get a few bragging rights.