New York will hold a second call for offshore wind power this year in a move that could yield “at least an additional 1GW of clean power and perhaps substantially more”.

The solicitation by The New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) was announced as part of the state of the state address by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

New York state has emerged as a pace-setter in the fast-evolving US offshore wind market, with NYSERDA in October setting the seal on contracts with Equinor and Orsted-Eversource joint venture Sunrise Wind for almost 1.7GW of offshore wind power.

These deals, the largest procurement from the sector so far in the US, are the first slice of New York’s goal to have 9GW of offshore wind in place by 2035 , and a major step toward meeting the state’s 70% renewables mandate for the end of this decade.

Liz Burdock, CEO of US industry group the Business Network for Offshore Wind, said: “We thank the Governor and NYSERDA for committing to holding their second solicitation for at least 1GW in 2020. This, along with New Jersey’s second RFP scheduled for 2020, mean it will be another exciting year for offshore wind in the New York-New Jersey area.”

Burdock also praised Cuomo’s commitment to clean energy skills development, including a new Offshore Wind Training Institute on Long Island.

The International Energy Agency, in its first standalone report on the sector last year, forecast offshore wind to mushroom to become a main engine of the transition toward a decarbonised global energy system in the coming decades, with the worldwide fleet expanding 15-fold to reach at least 340GW by 2040.

But some analysts, including the UK's Rethink Energy, suggest the US could fall behind in the process due to headwinds created by “conflicting politics, as well as its lack of maritime and transmission readiness”, as Europe expands steadily and an Asia Pacific market supercharged by build-out off China sees explosive, record-setting growth.