September 2, 2019
New York State recently announced that $280 million will be made available for energy storage projects. Governor Cuomo made the announcement, with his aim to accelerate growth in the energy storage industry and help drive down deployment costs of energy storage. This funding was announced during Earth Week, as part of an effort to make New York the nationwide leader in energy storage — with a deployment target of 3,000 megawatts by 2040. Governor Cuomo’s Green Deal also supports clean energy and creates jobs into New York State by building a path towards a carbon neutral economy.
Governor Cuomo states that energy storage is vital in ensuring that New York has enough energy to run all year long. This funding will help the industry grow and create jobs while New York pushes toward its energy storage target. New York will continue to invest in its future by building a more efficient, cleaner energy system — even if the federal administration denies the reality of climate change.
Energy storage will help the electric grid by putting less pressure on the grid during peak hours. When gathering energy during the day, there may be excess that is not used — this will be stored instead. With the help of energy storage, New York will be able to run all hours of the day, meeting the standard quota using renewable energy. Excess power from wind and solar energy sources will be stored in industrial-sized batteries for later use. Energy storage will help New York meet periods of peak demand, ensuring quality, clean energy all year long.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) Market Acceleration Bridge Incentive Program helps by giving incentives to two-thirds of the state’s 1,500 megawatt by 2025 energy storage target. The funding will be available in two categories, as stated by NYSERDA:
$150 million for bulk projects including systems that are over five megawatts to provide wholesale market energy or distribution
$130 million for retail storage projects that include customer sited system that are generally below five megawatts, which are smaller systems that are installed alone or paired with onsite generation such as solar.
There will also be support for retail storage projects with the Retail Energy Storage Incentive Program. This program will allow for the megawatt hour block system to receive incentives — this is similar in design to the NY-Sun Megawatt Block Program. This incentive program is divided into two regions — New York City, and the rest of the state, excluding Long Island. The program’s incentive amounts are assigned to each region, then the incentive decreases with each year. Incentives are offered on a first come, first serve basis, and are calculated by usable energy storage capacity in kilowatt hours. Incentives will be available for all, until the region is fully subscribed.
The bulk storage projects provided by NYSERDA will have two types of funding — a fixed incentive amount which will decline over the years, or an RFP which will be issued later this year. Projects can only choose only one of the types of funding in the incentive category.
In addition to the $280 million announced, another $70 million will be allocated by NYSERDA. This will give opportunities for utility companies to support a self sustaining storage market. $53 million will be given from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative funds for retail and bulk storage projects, specifically in Long Island.
New York is home to nearly 100 energy storage companies, with expertise in advanced materials, software development, project management, and hardware manufacturing. New York ranks fifth in the nation for energy storage. The energy storage industry is generating nearly $1 billion in revenue and employs nearly 3,450 people.
Governor Cuomo’s announcement has accelerated energy storage to a new level in New York State. Cuomo released a New York Energy Storage Roadmap which set New York a target of 1,500 megawatts of energy storage by 2025. There was also a secondary target announced — 3,000 megawatts by 2030. This announcement it is expected to lead to more than $4 billion in gross benefits to New Yorkers. This approach will also decrease carbon dioxide emissions by two million metric tons. The energy storage goal will be adopted, and approved targets will use the incentive funds to fund the projects.
Governor Cuomo also recently announced an Innovation Challenge partnership with the Tandon School of Engineering’s Urban Future Lab from NYU, in order to support pilot programs demonstrating new energy storage and electric vehicle technologies. NYSERDA also made $22 million available from the clean energy fund to benefit those energy storage projects that are already commercially available, as well as technologies that have not been commercialized but could support renewable power in New York.
If you’re interested in pairing battery storage with a solar system, contact YSG today at 212.389.9215.
By Kasey Liu
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