Former DEC Commissioner Joe Martens has headed up the New York State Offshore Wind Alliance since 2017, which happened to correspond with the state’s first foray into offshore wind.
Today, Martens is stepping down from that position.
Capital Tonight invited him to appear on the show to discuss where the industry is four and a half years later.
“As you said, when I started at the Alliance we were just getting started in New York in the offshore wind arena,” Martens said. “But offshore wind has been thriving in Europe for over 30 years.”
The U.S. is currently home to two small offshore wind pilot projects, one each off the coasts of Rhode Island and Virginia.
But according to Martens, New York is becoming a leader in the industry thanks to several aggressive solicitations. Since 2017, New York has bid out five large-scale projects which are currently in various stages of development.
“We expect to begin construction on the first of those, known as the South Fork Wind Farm, next year,” Martens said.
New York State’s “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” requires that 70% of electricity generated in the state come from renewable energy by 2030. The five offshore wind projects alone will generate 30% of all the state’s electricity by 2030 – a total of 4300 megawatts of power.
“To give you a basis of comparison, one of the Indian Point nuclear reactors that is now closed down generated about 1000 megawatts,” Martens explained. “One off-shore wind farm has the capacity to generate about the same as one nuclear power plant.”
But New York’s preeminence in this sector is dependent on siting these large projects, and Martens says it’s not easy.
“The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is putting out solicitations; they’re awarding bids. They’re doing alright,” Martens explained. “But then you have to site these things. They’re proposed in specific communities, and community opposition is one of the biggest hurdles to get over.”
The state recently passed a new siting law to accelerate the process of siting large renewable projects. It recently won its first court challenge.
“The developers have a responsibility as well as the community to make sure the projects are sited properly,” Martens said, “It is possible to site projects in places where they have less of a visual impact.”
Martens says a secondary challenge is transmission.
“We have to upgrade the entire transmission system to handle all of this more-distributed generation,” he explained. “Renewables tend to be much smaller than a single power plant so there are more of them, and they all have to be connected to the Grid and then you have to be able to move that power from places like upstate to downstate.”
But the “billion-dollar question,” according to Martens, is will wind power save consumers money? The answer is not straightforward.
“My argument, Susan, is that these projects all cost ratepayers money but the alternatives also cost ratepayers money, and you have to factor in things like emissions, pollution — all of those are costs,” Martens said. “So, in my mind, offshore wind and renewables are competitive if not less costly.”
Over the next few months, Martens said he’s going to “unplug” and spend time with his large extended family before returning to the environmental field in some capacity in 2022.