The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York Public Service Commission awarded $204 million in contracts on April 9 that will support the development of 318 MW of renewable electricity at eight sites.

The eight projects are in various stages of project development and have not yet been built. NYSERDA has issued no new solicitations since January 2010, when the authority announced a round of power orders for five projects slated to generate 142 MW.

In December 2009, New York’s PSC established a goal of supplying 30% of its power from renewable sources by 2015. Currently, about 21% of the state’s power is from renewable sources.

Besides the projects, New York is supporting 39 projects that will provide 1,532 MW of renewable power to the state’s grid, mainly through wind farms and hydroelectric upgrades. Five projects are currently under construction.

Providers span the U.S. The projects approved under the competitive solicitation include Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy’s Marble River Wind farm; Princeton, N.J.-based NRG Energy’s biomass co-firing project at the Dunkirk Powerplant; Portland, Ore.-based Iberdrola Renewable’s Hardscrabble Wind Farm; Boston-based First Wind’s Steel Winds II wind farm; Wappinger Falls Hydroelectric’s upgrade to the Wappingers Falls dam; Toronto, Ontario-based Brookfield Renewable Power Inc.’s upgrade to its Taylorville Dam; MM Albany LLC’s landfill-to-gas-to-electricity project in Albany; Dallas-based Catalyst Renewables 100% biomass Black River Generation project.

NYSERDA did not provide information on the size of individual project awards.