General Electric an early favorite among N.Y. wind project bidders
ALBANY — General Electric is poised to become a major offshore wind power player, with all six energy developers in the state’s latest solicitation saying they want to use the company as a supplier.
Attentive Energy One, a partnership of French energy giant Total and New York City-based Rise Light & Power, would use Ge-built blades and nacelles, the housings that contain the power generators. The GE components would be built at the Port of Coeymans, should Attentive win a contract in the state’s most recent round of bidding for developing wind power off the coast of Long Island.
Also competing in the bidding is Community Offshore Wind, a partnership between RWE and National Grid, which has also identified GE as a supplier of
blades and nacelles.
Other competitors — Equinor, Orsted, Leading Edge, and Vineyard Offshore — are also looking at using combinations of the company’s components.
Representatives from these wind developers gave what were essentially sales pitches at a forum for suppliers sponsored Tuesday by the Capital Region’s Center for Economic Growth at the University at Albany’s new ETEC building.
That GE is looking to build wind power plants in the Capital Region is no coincidence, said Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency.
The region’s proximity to the Hudson River, skilled workforce and abundant educational opportunities make the Capital Region a “unique gem,” for wind development, Harris said.
“These ports serve as anchors for our industry,” Harris explained.
Her agency is managing the third solicitation or request for bids by offshore wind developers. The bids were closed Jan. 26. The six offshore developers put in proposals for up to eight wind farms.
Two Scandinavian firms, Equinor and Orsted, are already developing wind towers off of Long Island from an earlier solicitation. And Vineyard Offshore has built a wind farm off Martha’s Vineyard near Cape Cod, Mass.
Vineyard, noted company development director Jordan Shoesmith, has recently laid power lines. “We have cables in the water already,” said Shoesmith.
The GE blade factory at Coeymans would employ 650 people, while the nacelle facility would create 220 jobs.
Constructing the plant would also create about 1,000 jobs with another 1,500 secondary jobs.
The Coeymans facility, owned by Carver Companies, is already hiring in anticipation of the work they expect, not only with GE, but with Orsted, which is building a wind farm east of Montauk Point. That came from an earlier solicitation.
“We’re hiring to beat the band,” said Coeymans Port President Stephen Kelly.
Not everything has gone smoothly. A proposed wind tower factory at the Port of Albany 10 miles north of Coeymans, has struggled with permit delays and ballooning costs.
Megan Daly, chief commerce officer for the Port of Albany, said the estimated cost of that wind tower factory has risen from $254 million in 2020 to $604 million today.
Much of that is due to skyrocketing concrete costs; the plan includes a massive new wharf to load completed wind towers onto barges.
But Daly added that the wind power industry is expected to grow into a $540 billion industry over the next decade.
“This is something we have to take in the context of the opportunity,” said Daly.