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New York State regulatory agencies announced 20 September that
Clean Path NY and Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) have been
chosen to construct and operate a pair of transmission lines that
will deliver a total of 2.55 GW of renewable energy from upstate
New York and Canada to the state's more populous areas.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
(NYSERDA) said the two projects—which have yet to receive final
permitting—would deliver 18 million MWh per year upon
completion. That's enough to power more than 2.5 million homes and
reduce GHG emissions by 77 million mt over the next 15 years, the
equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road.
The projects were announced during the first day of New York
Climate Week by Governor Kathy Hochul, less than a month after she
assumed the position when Andrew Cuomo stepped down. Hochul said
the projects will help the state reach its goal of 70% of its
energy coming from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% by 2040, per
the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act that Cuomo
signed in 2019.
Clean Path NY is a 1.3-GW, 174-mile underground line that will
deliver power from 20 wind and solar projects. It is being
developed by Forward Power, a joint venture of Invenergy and
energyRe, and the state-owned New York Power Authority.
CHPE is a 1.25-GW, 339-mile underground and underwater
transmission project that will deliver wind energy and hydropower
from Quebec to Queens, New York, and locations along the way. It is
being developed by Blackstone-backed Transmission Developers and
Hydro-Québec, and it will run under Lake Champlain and part of the
Hudson River on its route downstate.
Concurrent with the announcement that it is part of the winning
bid on the CHPE project, Hydro-Quebec said on 20 September it has
signed a 25-year deal to sell power to New York worth approximately
$20 billion.
"Transformative"
For New York City, the primary destination of the power from the
transmission lines, the impact will be "transformative," New York
City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. The city obtains
nearly 90% of its power from fossil fuels today, he said.
"Two new transmission lines connecting New York City to
electricity from water, the wind, and solar will create thousands
of good union jobs, improve the resilience and reliability of our
power supply, and dramatically reduce our reliance on oil and
natural gas electricity that dirties the air in our neighborhoods
and endangers our planet," de Blasio said.
New York is the nation's fourth-most populous state, with more
than 19 million people. It is ninth in annual GHG emissions,
according to the US Energy Information Administration, with about
157 million mt of CO2 equivalent, or about 3% of the US annual
total.
Energy accounts for 24% of the state's GHG emissions, according
to NYSERDA, making a transformation of the sector a key element of
the state reaching goals of reducing statewide GHG emissions by 40%
from 1990 levels by 2030 and 85% by 2050. Those goals were also
outlined in the Climate Leadership and Community
Protection Act.
Despite supporting the tough environmental goals, Cuomo had
signed off on the closure of one clean energy resource in April
2021, the Indian Point nuclear power
plant. To critics, this left the state in a precarious position
on energy resilience.
Speed is one of the attractions of the CHPE proposal, the
transmission line originating in Canada. Transmission Developers
says it already has all the permits it needs to begin construction
this year (though IHS Markit could not confirm this statement). The
developer says it can complete the high-voltage, direct-current
power line by 2025 and deliver enough power to replace more than
half of the generation lost from the closure of Indian Point.
Completion of the Clean Path NY line could be as early as 2027,
said NYSERDA.
More energy transitions
The new power lines are just one part of the state's plans to
shift from gas-fired power to renewables. Renewables accounted for
29% of the state's energy mix in 2019, according to the US Energy
Information Administration, and 80% of that is from hydropower.
In June, the federal government approved leasing of eight areas
off the New York and New Jersey coasts in the Atlantic Ocean, an
area known as the New York Bight. This is a key
part of President Joe Biden's goal of reaching 30 GW of US offshore
wind capacity by 2030. Cuomo had set a target for just New York
State of 9 GW of offshore wind by 2030.
Bids for the wind projects were due on 13 August. The lease
areas have the potential to unlock over 7 GW of offshore wind
capacity, powering more than 2.6 million homes and supporting
thousands of new jobs, according to the US Department of
Interior.
Also, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC)'s distributed
power program known as NY Sun has supported
installation of more than 2.5 GW of rooftop solar capacity so far,
according to NYSERDA. Its mandated target is 6 GW of distributed
solar and 3 GW of battery storage by 2030.
But the big power lines coming from central power sources are
essential to solving the state's needs as well. "While the state
should expect rapid growth in the deployment of distributed solar
in New York City … distributed solar will not have the necessary
scale to solve this issue on its own," the PSC stated.
Mixed reviews
Despite the major investments ($11 billion for Clean Path NY and
$2.2 billion for CHPE), one of the projects received some criticism
from environmental groups.
The Sierra Club and other opponents of the CHPE project charge
that the hydropower from Hydro-Quebec is not necessarily an
additional amount of hydropower generation for North America. They
said Hydro-Québec can redirect hydro sales to New York City and
sell power from fossil fuel-fired generation from its other
facilities to other buyers. They also said that if the company is
incentivized to build new dams, those could have negative
environmental impacts and raise costs that consumers will have to
absorb.
The PSC order appears to address the issues by including
provisions to ensure that "deliveries of hydropower under Tier 4
are not simply backfilled by fossil resources elsewhere on the
grid." And the PSC said the project could not be used to justify
construction of new hydropower structures.
Canadian hydropower has substantial support in New England and
the Midwest, as other states seek to decarbonize their energy mix.
Massachusetts is leaning on a plan to bring 1.2 GW of Canadian
hydropower to New England through Avangrid's New England Clean
Energy Connect power line in Maine, although that project has faced
delays due to opposition from environmentalists as well as
gas-fired generators in New England.
Allete subsidiary Minnesota Power last year brought online the
880-MW Great Northern transmission line to allow Manitoba Hydro to
deliver hydropower and provide "virtual" storage for the Upper
Midwest.
--Includes original reporting by George Lobsenz, "The Energy
Daily."
Posted 21 September 2021 by Kevin Adler, Chief Editor
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