New York Sets Highest U.S. Offshore Wind Capacity Goal

The most promising U.S. offshore market due to its high electricity prices and load center New York City’s favorable placement near quality potential offshore wind sites, New York has been slow to fully clarify the scope and timeline of its offshore wind strategy, so this came as a welcome announcement. The timeline of installation milestones will presumably come later in this year, when NYSERDA, the state agency which effectively coordinates renewables policy and deployment, releases its “master plan” for offshore wind.

MAKE anticipates no change to the offshore forecast at this time based on the governor’s statements. The capacity announcement, while welcome, had no material impact on the timeline of installations and the governor’s instruction to NYSERDA to assist Statoil in bringing the first, sub-GW phase of its lease area into operation was nothing new: despite warning to the contrary before the lease auction, NYSERDA had already promised to do so shortly after it itself lost to Statoil’s record-setting bid. The governor also recommended the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) accept a PPA for Deepwater Wind’s 90MW South Fork project, though this was already expected to be signed in Q1 without the governor’s intervention. Unless a stepped timeline is incorporated into NYSERDA’s master plan, as it was in Massachusetts, the bulk of installations to meet the 2.4GW goal will likely occur outside of MAKE’s 10-year forecast period.

Finland’s New Energy and Climate Strategy

On 24th November the Finnish government published the new Energy and Climate Strategy. All relevant ministries, main industry sectors, stakeholders and citizens were involved in this work. The new strategy introduces the ways to reach Finland’s ambitious climate and energy targets.

The Energy and Climate Strategy is also a part of the work that will be done for preparing Energy Union’s National Energy and Climate plan and it will indicate how Finland is going to reach the EU’s 2030 targets for renewable energy, energy efficiency and also EU effort sharing.

The Finnish government has set ambitious national targets on renewable energy in its program. Finland is committed to EU’s 2030 energy and climate targets and will continue increasing use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency. Finland’s long-term objective is to be a carbon-neutral society. This challenge is particularly great in the energy sector. Approximately 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Finland come from energy production and consumption, when energy used for transport is included.

According to the government program, Finland will ambitiously increase use of renewable energy and energy self sufficiency in 2020s. The main focus is on the promotion of bioenergy and advanced biofuels for transport.

•The use of emission-free, renewable energy will be increased in a sustainable way so that its share will rise to more than 50 % by the end of 2020s and the self-sufficiency to more than 55 %, also including peat.

•Coal will no longer be used in energy production and the use of imported oil for the domestic needs will be cut by half by the end of 2020s.

•The share of renewable transport fuels will be raised to 40 % by 2030.

•Finland will create new support programmes for renewable energy. Aid will be based on technology neutrality and ranking of economic priorities.