It’s the feel-good story of the week, if you don’t mind taking joy from others’ misfortunes. When it comes to the wind and solar energy grifters, I don’t mind a bit taking joy from their troubles. [some emphasis, links added]
The last few days have brought the news that, apparently, the majority of the remaining wind and solar electricity projects still in development in New York State are under imminent threat of cancellation.
At this point, the details are sketchy, and nobody is attributing the news to any named source as far as I can find. Nevertheless, the story is sufficiently widely reported from normally reliable sources that I’m ready to give it credit.
The Albany Times-Union appears to have been the first with the story in a piece from April 12 with the headline, “Clean energy projects in NY on hold as battle over costs escalates.”
The gist is that the developers of some two dozen “clean energy” (wind and solar) projects in upstate New York have approached the State and demanded more money above agreed-upon prices just to proceed with previously contracted developments.
Unless they get the additional funds, they are threatening to walk away from the projects.
Excerpt:
“Nearly two dozen of New York’s clean energy projects may be scrapped because they are financially impractical, a possible outcome that would exacerbate the state’s struggling efforts to meet increasing power demands while also ensuring the electric grid becomes less dependent on fossil fuels.
“The stalled wind and solar projects would power roughly 2 million homes, but the developers want to renegotiate state contracts to reflect tariffs and rising labor costs not factored in when their deals were struck between 2023 and early 2025. Without more revenue, the projects won’t be economically viable and will need to be canceled, according to a trade organization representing them.”
The Times-Union piece does not contain a list of projects threatened with cancellation, nor the names of their developers in question.
However, it does contain this quote from one Deanna Cohen, identified as a spokesperson for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA):
“The authority ‘expects its developers to honor their commitments,’ spokeswoman Deanna Cohen said. ‘The competitive bidding process is designed to protect consumers and result in fair and cost-effective contracts.’ “
Corroborating the Times-Union story, here is a piece from FingerLakes1.com yesterday. Excerpt:
“According to Public Power NY, developers are signaling they may walk away from projects after the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority declined to renegotiate contracts to account for higher costs tied to tariffs and inflation. … The potential cancellations could significantly impact New York’s renewable energy pipeline at a time when the state is already behind pace on targets established under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.”
Well, NYSERDA, what are you going to do if the developers of most of your renewable energy projects just walk away?
Readers here with long memories may recall the nearly identical saga that played out from 2023 to 2025 involving New York’s grand schemes for offshore wind developments to replace most of its fossil fuel power plants.
I covered this situation in various pieces over that time period, including this one from April 17, 2025, that included an overview of the entire history.
The short version is that beginning in 2019, New York State entered into fixed-price contracts (in the range of $80-90/MWh) with big-time developers (Equinor, Ørsted, etc.) to develop 4+ gigawatts of offshore wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean; but in September 2023, all the developers came in and demanded big price increases and threatened to cancel.
The State (via NYSERDA) initially bluffed and blustered that it was going to hold the developers to their contracts. But after multiple months of that, NYSERDA caved and re-bid the contracts, ending in early 2024 with contracts with the same developers at nearly-doubled prices in the range of $150/MWh.
And then President Trump swept into office in January 2025 and blew the whole thing “out of the water,” as they say. (At least one of the offshore projects has since been revived under some kind of deal between the Trump administration and Governor Hochul.)
However, the rest of the offshore wind projects look rather dead at this point.
So with regard to the upstate and onshore projects, we are now at the place where we were in September 2023 with the offshore projects.
Does the State hold any more cards this time around? It may hold even fewer cards this time, because many of these upstate developments have likely qualified for federal tax benefits that, in light of the One Big Beautiful Bill, will no longer be available to anyone who starts today from scratch.
Another option for New York, and by far the best one, would be to take this opportunity to walk away from the renewable energy fantasy.
In any rebid of the on-shore wind contracts, the prices are likely to be double to triple the price that could be had from a brand-new natural gas plant.
And the power from a natural gas plant would be dispatchable and reliable, instead of the intermittent power from wind turbines or solar panels that is never there when you really need it. I don’t think that our Governor and bureaucrats are quite ready to go that route yet, but they are getting closer with every passing day.
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