EDF Renewables North America, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the French utility EDF Group, announced that its three solar plus energy storage projects were awarded long-term contracts by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

The contracts awarded comprise 1 GW of solar and storage projects that would deliver clean energy to the state.

Two contracts were approved for EDF’s two 350 MW solar energy centers, each with 20 MW of co-located storage sites spread across approximately 2,000 acres in Ridge View, Columbia, and Litchfield in Herkimer County and Hartland in Niagara County.

NYSERDA approved a third contract for EDF’s 240 MW solar energy center that operates with 20 MW of co-located storage spread across approximately 1,500 acres at Rich Road in Canton, St. Lawrence County.

EDF Renewables said that NYSERDA approved the contracts for the three projects as part of the 2021 solicitation for large-scale renewable energy certificates.

The power consumption of over 243,000 average households in New York would be met with full capacity electricity generation through the projects and help mitigate close to 880,000 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually.

The projects are part of EDF’s community engagement plans which include annual scholarships for students in the project area school districts interested in the trades or clean energy.

EDF Renewables’ Senior Director of Development for the Northeast region, Stephane Desdunes, observed, “The projects will create approximately 1,290 prevailing wage and union construction jobs in upstate New York during peak construction and contribute millions of dollars to the Counties, Towns and School Districts during the operational life of the projects. With more than 1,000 MW of solar and storage projects under development, we look forward to working with NYSERDA and New York State to achieve the 70% goal by 2030 and deliver clean energy to the residents of New York.”

NYSERDA’s President and CEO, Doreen M. Harris, said, “NYSERDA will work closely with EDF Renewables to ensure the communities hosting these projects are engaged throughout the development process. The observations help protect our valuable agricultural lands and benefit the state and local economies alike.”

EDF’s three projects are among the 22 large-scale solar projects, including six projects with energy storage, across New York that were awarded.

In May 2021, EDF Renewables procured three contracts from NYSERDA to deploy solar projects totaling 303 MW in New York. NYSERDA awarded the contracts as part of the 2020 Renewable Energy Solicitation Program to achieve the state’s target of 70% electricity generation from renewable energy by 2030.

The U.S. government has ramped up measures to add more clean energy to the country’s grid. Recently, the Biden government launched the Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) initiative through the Department of Energy to reduce the waiting period for clean energy sources in interconnection queues while lowering the grid connection rates.