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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, our climate story of the week, which we do every Tuesday on the show, and today, an update on the state of offshore wind projects in New York State. In 2023 last year, a number of renewable energy projects in New York State were killed off because of supply chain issues and the rising costs of completing those projects.

There were big hopes that 2024 would be different, and a major plan to build three wind farms near Albany was central to those hopes. Now, those projects are dead in the water, and developers are casting blame on General Electric for the setback. It's a big hit for New York's climate and energy goals and for the nations by extension. We'll talk about what happened, and we'll get some context now from Marie French who covers energy and the environment for POLITICO New York.

Hi, Marie, thanks for doing this. Welcome back to WNYC. Do we have Marie? Marie, can you hear me?

Marie French: Yes, I can hear you.

Brian Lehrer: There we go. Now we have you. You write, "In the rush to save New York's offshore industry from collapse last fall, Governor Kathy Hochul's administration bet big on three new wind farms. A win would be just the kind the Biden administration is looking for: Pairing clean energy with union jobs and domestic manufacturing," unquote from your article. What could have been? What was initially planned?

Marie French: Brian, these were the reset projects that Governor Kathy Hochul announced in October last year. These would be three, more than 1,300 megawatt wind projects south of Long Island in the ocean, paired with two huge factories for blades and nacelles, which are the guts of wind turbines, in the capital region near Albany. This was a huge win for New York, a really big step in securing some of that manufacturing supply chain that states in the Northeast are really competing for right now.

Brian Lehrer: Those offshore wind projects you reported would've provided 6.6% of New York's needed electricity by 2030. Can you put that number in context? What's 6% of New York's energy needs in terms of money or kilowatts? That's probably not how you want to put it, or help for the climate.

Marie French: To put that in some context, right now, New York only has about 27% or 28% renewable energy. The state's goal in 2030 is 70% of the forecast load in that year. The offshore wind projects are really significant because they generate more power. You build these turbines in the ocean and they just catch more wind than if you build a turbine on land. Onshore portfolio right now, they just announced 24 projects with I think it was roughly 2,500 megawatts of capacity, but that will only be about 3% of the state's renewables in 2030.

Brian Lehrer: That's some context, but New York's big bet on wind farms has so far not paid off, including now these three planned installations near Albany dead in the water. What happened?

Marie French: These three projects south of Long Island were predicated on GE Vernova, which is a spinoff from GE when it split into different companies, building larger turbines than have previously been built for offshore wind. These turbines would've been 18 megawatts and the standard right now is closer to 15 or even less, but GE ultimately backed out of that plan. They decided that they wanted to focus on a more mid-sized turbine on a proven technology platform that they already had and weren't able to move forward with these major factories in the Albany area that would've provided thousands of jobs and millions in economic development.

The state and the offshore wind developers are all pointing the finger at GE Vernova for not following through on this agreement, and GE Vernova is saying, "Well, we think the turbine that we've chosen to go forward with is a better investment for the future anyway."

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we can take a few phone calls about the state of wind energy in New York after three key wind farm projects just collapsed. Our guest is Marie French, who covers energy in the environment for POLITICO New York, and who reports that Governor Kathy Hochul's big bet on those three new wind farms and an even bigger bet on General Electric have so far not paid off.

You can weigh in or ask her a question. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text. Marie writes, and it's a follow-up to what you were just describing, about the state betting on GE. You write, "The irony of GE's troubles was that it was supposed to be a panacea for the offshore wind industries supply chain issues." What specifically did GE promise and then not deliver?

Marie French: GE Vernova had committed to building both a factory for blades, for offshore wind turbines, and nacelles, which are the guts of the turbine that turn the spinning of those blades into electricity. That would've meant we don't have to ship it from overseas, it's built here in the US, which is obviously a big priority of Governor Hochul and the Democratic administration in Washington.

These projects were agreed to after all this upending of the supply chain with Ukraine and everything else going on in the world, the pandemic. They had inflation adjustments built into their contracts, so as costs potentially would continue to rise, they would've been able to stay on track rather than have to say, "We can't do this anymore as the previous projects have."

Brian Lehrer: You write, "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." I guess one key takeaway here is that wind projects are really, really difficult and expensive, especially apparently in the Northeast because we've talked about political opposition before, made-up things like it's killing whales and all these other things, but it sounds more like you're describing business obstacles on the part of GE and others. How do they get past that? How do they now rewind and try to come at it yet another way?

Marie French: I think the ball is really in state, the hands of New York, New Jersey, and the other states that are pursuing these projects. New York is gearing up for another solicitation to try to secure contracts with potentially some reimagined version of these projects or the other bidders that didn't secure contracts, and some of those that are still working on their plans.

New Jersey also is opening solicitation, I believe, voting on it today, their board of public utilities. States, they're keeping their chin up and saying, "We're going to move forward with this industry. We think it has great promise." They're making some changes to the way they tie together some of the supply chain components with the offshore wind projects themselves as well, which shows they're learning from these experiences, and these really big blows to the ambitions.

Brian Lehrer: Listener writes, "I am texting from Croton near Indian Point. I'm wondering what has replaced Indian Point's electricity generation?" Do you have an answer to that?

Marie French: I do indeed. Largely natural gas has filled in. You can see that actually in the past couple days, the state's grid operator has come out with their report on the fuel mix in 2023, and there's been a pretty big increase in how much of that is fossil fuel from about 39% in 2019 before any of the Indian Point units closed down, up to roughly 49% in 2023.

Brian Lehrer: Can the state still meet its goal of getting 70% of electricity from renewable energy by 2030?

Marie French: I think it's incredibly challenging right now to see that happen. The state earlier this week did announce some additional onshore renewable awards. Right now for built, contracted, in the pipeline investments, they're at about 60%, but that 10% is going to be really challenging given that most of these offshore wind projects that are going to be contracted in the future probably will not be able to come online in time for 2030.

Brian Lehrer: How's the state responding? What has it indicated will be the next step toward getting those climate and energy goals back on course? You talked before about how it might try again with another company for wind farms, what about overall?

Marie French: Yes, so it's accelerating the process of securing onshore contracts as well. We're likely to see both offshore wind and onshore solicitations later this year, to try and fill in that remaining gap. It's going to be really interesting to watch. The state has not released cost details for its latest provisional awards for the onshore solar and wind projects, so we don't know how much more these are going to cost than the ones that were originally awarded and had sought higher prices from the state.

Brian Lehrer: A follow-up to the listener from Croton's Indian Point question. Does nuclear energy remain a dead letter at least in terms of any expansion in New York State? I think the implication of that listener's question was nuclear energy, for whatever risks it does pose, is more climate-friendly, and so we've gone backwards in that respect if Indian Point's power has been replaced by natural gas.

Marie French: Yes. I think the tone of the conversation around new nuclear in New York has definitely shifted over the past few years. I remember a few years ago I was speaking to a top energy official, and they were basically like, "Nah, that wouldn't be part of it." At a public hearing a couple of years ago, another one had said they don't see that ever happening in New York. The tone has definitely shifted. I think there's now openness to that idea.

Whether anything like that could be online by 2030, I think I'm not sure about that. The mechanisms for contracting for something like that would have to go through the state's public service commission, which -- no offense to my friends there, but isn't the fastest mover.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Well, with the news peg being the collapse of these three wind farm projects in the Albany area, another setback for the transition to clean energy in New York State. We leave it for our climate story of the week for this week with Marie French, who covers energy and the environment for POLITICO New York. Marie, thank you very much.

Marie French: Thanks so much, Brian. It's great to be back.

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