The state of New York in March (2018) announced both that it was awarding 26 large-scale renewables projects worth $1.4 billion, and that it had requested to be excluded from the federal offshore oil and gas drilling programme. The state was making it priorities clear.

The list of awarded projects consists of 22 utility-scale solar farms, three wind farms and one hydroelectric facility. All projects are expected to be fully operational by 2022.

Below is the full list of projects along with their expected energy generation capacity.

Since then Governor Andrew M Cuomo has announced a second solicitation for the mobilisation of $1.5 billion in private investment for 20 large-scale projects.

According to figures from the US Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy, in 2016 renewables made up 24% of total generation in the state, an increase from 19% in 2011. Hydro plants provide the bulk of this renewables capacity – roughly 80% of the total.

The state’s focus is now turning to wind and, in particular, solar due to plummeting technology costs. The Governor's Reforming the Energy Vision 2030 scheme, launched in 2014, has the ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% and for the state to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. As part of the programme, New York is to phase out coal power plants by 2020.

IJGlobal data shows that the state of New York has been gradually moving towards renewable energy generation over the past 20 years.

Currently the renewable energy mix contains operational assets mainly in two sub-categories:

• onshore wind
• small hydro – hydroelectric power plants of up to 20MW

Remaining renewable generation is mostly provided by waste-to-energy, landfill-gas-to-energy and biomass plants.

IJGlobal pipeline data shows that the solar sub-sector in the state is seeing the largest portion of growth. The largest operational solar farm to date is the 32MW Long Island project, commissioned in 2011. Newly-awarded projects in the pipeline have similar or even larger capacities, completely dwarfing some existing solar facilities.

The planned investments in large-scale solar and wind projects are essential to New York's plan to become one of the leading US states in terms of clean energy generation. Achieving Governor Cuomo’s programme pivots on attracting sufficient private sector investor interest.

All eyes will be on the responses to the Governor’s latest request for proposals.