Originally Posted by
BillyCarpenter
Another democrat green loser:
Collapse of wind farm projects spoils New York’s climate goals. Here’s why.
In the rush to save New York’s offshore industry from collapse last fall, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration bet big on three new wind farms — and even bigger on General Electric, a blue chip American company founded in Schenectady in 1892.
A win would be just the kind the Biden administration is looking for: Pairing clean energy with union jobs and domestic manufacturing.
But the bet was a losing one.
For months, it’s been clear GE Vernova, a spinoff of GE, couldn’t deliver the crucial parts all three wind farms were forced to use. And, late last week, New York officials announced all three projects are dead in the water.
Industry and environmental groups moved to downplay the fallout, but 2024 was supposed to be offshore wind’s year. Instead, it’s looking more like the disastrous 2023, where several projects in New York and New Jersey were canceled or had to be reworked because of inflation and supply chain issues.
New York’s projects were key to President Joe Biden meeting his energy goals for the nation. The struggles of projects in the Northeast during his administration are a major setback for the industry and the woes could be much worse if former President Donald Trump, who is openly hostile to offshore wind, wins this fall.
The larger impact is that the projects threaten to derail state and federal goals to move away from fossil fuels and meet ambitious climate goals by 2030.
Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, said this round of cancellations is different because it’s not an industry-wide problem but a single supplier changing its plans. She said there’s still time for the state to reset and achieve its 2030 goal of getting 70 percent of its electricity from renewable energy.
“It’s better to have this reset at the beginning of the process than at the end of the process,” Tighe said.
But with no open bids, lengthy federal permitting and other challenges, the goal may be out of reach for future offshore wind projects contracted by NYSERDA, the agency overseeing the process in New York.
Hochul on Tuesday sought to recapture the momentum on offshore wind once again, releasing a solicitation for $200 million for supply chain projects and port infrastructure.
The administration also announced a new bidding process for offshore wind contracts would be moved up to begin this summer. The process will still link $300 million in funds for major manufacturing investments but NYSERDA and developers will have more flexibility to shift funds if a single factory doesn’t materialize.
The irony of GE’s troubles was that it was supposed to be a panacea for the offshore wind industry’s supply chain issues. The company proposed building two factories along the Hudson River in the Albany area to make blades and nacelles — the inner guts of the turbine that transform the energy from the spinning blades into electricity.
But GE couldn’t deliver the larger turbine it had promised developers and New York officials, so the company wanted the three wind developers to buy more smaller turbines. That blew up the balance sheet for the wind projects because each extra turbine would require massive underwater foundations, more labor and availability of specialized ships, which are already scarce.
“New York was clearly swinging for the fences here in trying to secure a really marquee manufacturing facility,” said Fred Zalcman, head of the New York Offshore Wind Association. “The bids were so tethered to the GE turbine play that when that aspect of the project fell apart, it really had some significant ripple effects.”
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