New York Law Creates Renewable Energy Siting Office to Streamline Permitting for Large-Scale Projects

New York lawmakers passed legislation as part of the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 state budget to establish an Office of Renewable Energy Permitting, which will create a siting process specifically designed for renewable energy projects, according to an April 3 announcement from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The office, the first of its kind in the nation, will establish uniform environmental standards and conditions that will help speed up project development. The current energy generation siting process was designed for fossil-fuel electric plants and established prior to the state’s adoption of aggressive goals under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act enacted last year, requiring the state to source 70 percent of its power from renewable energy.

The legislation, Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act, also aims to address transmission constraints by prioritizing the planning and investment to develop grid infrastructure, allowing renewable power to reach load centers. To this end, the law calls for a State Power Grid and Study Program to accelerate the planning and build out of bulk and local transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Under the new office, the state will consolidate the environmental review projects and provide a single forum to ensure that siting decisions are delivered in a timely manner along with opportunities for input from local communities, according to NYSERDA.

Renewable energy projects larger than 25 megawatts will be required to seek an approved permit through the new office for new construction or expansion and new facilities sized between 20 and 25 megawatts will also be able to opt-in. Until new standards are in place, applications must be designed to meet current Article 10 standards. Projects already in the initial phases of the current siting process may opt-in to the new process.

Among other initiatives, the legislation creates a Clean Energy Resources Development and Incentives Program through which NYSERDA will advance “Build-Ready” projects to develop existing or abandoned commercial sites, brownfields, landfills, former industrial sites, and underutilized sites. A Host Community Benefit Program, which will be developed as part of NYSERDA’s build-ready initiative, will offer benefits and incentives property owners and communities that host renewable energy facilities. Further, the Public Service Commission will establish a new program to provide utility bill discounts or other environmental benefits or compensation for the benefit of residents of host communities.

The 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requires the state to achieve a carbon-neutral power system by 2040 and codifies the state’s targets of 6 gigawatts of solar by 2025, 3 gigawatts of energy storage by 2030, and 9 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035, the most aggressive in the nation.