Attentive Energy and City College officials after the announcement of the $10m commitment to the Grove School to establish a renewable energy training program. Fifth from right [standing] is CCNY Pres. Vince Boudreau.
Attentive Energy One – a joint venture between TotalEnergies and Rise Light & Power – is committing $10 million to The City College of New York (CCNY) to establish a new renewable energy training program as part of its 1,400 MW offshore wind proposal to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in January 2023. The announcement was made today by Attentive Energy One and CCNY leadership on a visit to CCNY’s Grove School of Engineering in Harlem.
The Attentive Energy One project will build an offshore wind farm, which will deliver clean energy to over 700,000 homes via the Ravenswood Generating Station in Long Island City, permanently replacing 400 MW of fossil fuel generation. The associated investment at the Grove School of Engineering will create a renewable energy laboratory, small business support network, and incubator space at its campus in Upper Manhattan.
Projects like Attentive Energy One are critical to reach New York State’s aggressive climate goals. They also provide tremendous economic opportunities for New Yorkers to access high-quality green jobs; public colleges like CCNY will play a critical role in creating and shaping new green energy curriculum, providing certification programs and building a pipeline into the emerging offshore wind sector.
The proposed program includes three key pillars:
Workforce Training: CCNY’s comprehensive high school-to-career pipeline targeted to emerging offshore wind and renewable technologies will serve as an anchor institution within the three-tiered workforce development network proposed by Attentive Energy One, which also includes other public colleges, skilled-trades training programs, and community-based organizations in all five boroughs.
Research & Development: Incubating and accelerating developments in battery energy storage, electric transmission, and other climate tech enterprises. Taking the lead in this is City College’s Zahn Innovation Center, which empowers students and the CCNY community to embrace the entrepreneurial and innovation mindset by providing tools and resources to transform disruptive ideas into sustainable ventures.
Small Business: Technical assistance and capacity-building support for Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business (SDVOBs), worker-owned cooperatives, and other local businesses that are seeking to enter the renewable energy supply chain. Attentive Energy One previously announced $15 million in funding for its New York State Supply Chain Development Partnership (SCDP) on March 7, 2023, a large portion of which will serve as a grant and loan fund for diverse businesses to ramp up capabilities to serve the offshore wind market.
“The research and training resources of public colleges like CCNY must be mobilized if we are to address challenges like climate change effectively and with justice,” said CCNY President Vincent Boudreau. “The Ravenswood project is a key moment in our Grove School of Engineering’s efforts to rededicating itself to the resolution of some of the most pressing such problems, both by generating green energy and by making sure that good jobs in this sector are available to members of our Harlem community and communities like Harlem.”
“Attentive Energy is excited to partner with The City College of New York and support the development of the future clean energy workforce through the City's only public engineering college, the Grove School,” said Damian Bednarz, Managing Director, Attentive Energy. "Through this investment, Attentive Energy is committed to cultivating homegrown enterprises seeking to participate in the offshore wind supply chain, strengthening career readiness and supporting innovative climate tech solutions."
“We are proud to support City College’s work to prepare the next generation for the emerging green economy,” said Clint Plummer, CEO of Rise Light & Power. “Just as our workforce has powered New York City for decades, the Grove School has delivered high-quality, public education in engineering for decades. This investment will spur innovation, diversify the engineering sector, and fuel our transition to renewable energy.”
This bold investment proposal, a cornerstone of Attentive Energy’s $300 million economic benefits plan, ensures that career and wealth-building opportunities in the renewable energy industry are open and accessible to all New Yorkers through high-quality public institutions. CCNY is ranked #1 among selective public colleges by The Chronicle of Higher Education’s overall economic mobility index and the Grove School is ranked in the top 100 Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs by U.S. News & World Report. In addition, educational research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment.
Attentive Energy One would generate $25.6 billion in economic activity in New York State and partnerships like this represent significant opportunities for public college students to take part in the growing green economy.
For more information, please contact Michael Hardaway at mhardaway@mercuryllc.com .
About Attentive Energy One
Attentive Energy One ("AE1") is an offshore wind project designed to help New York State achieve the twin goals of replacing fossil fuel with renewable energy and establishing a durable local industry with living-wage jobs. The project will deliver a historic environmental justice victory by retiring and replacing a major fossil-fuel power plant with offshore wind power. The project will power over 700,000 New York homes in an area approximately 54 miles from its nearest point in New York. Wind power will be delivered directly to a waterfront power plant via a subsea transmission solution that avoids cable landings through beaches and other sensitive recreational areas. As a joint venture between TotalEnergies and Rise Light & Power, Attentive Energy One is uniquely positioned to deliver this major offshore wind project for New York. Click here for more information.
About TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our more than 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people. TotalEnergies has more than 11 GW of offshore wind projects in development, under construction or in operation across the world, and a portfolio of nearly 25 GW of wind, solar and storage in the U.S.
About Rise Light & Power
Rise Light & Power is a Queens, New York based energy asset manager and developer, and is actively transforming its core asset, Long Island City’s Ravenswood Generation Station, into a new clean energy hub, Renewable Ravenswood. By redeveloping New York City’s largest power generating facility, Rise will permanently replace fossil fuel power with homegrown renewable energy, while providing a just transition for its existing union workforce and economic opportunities for surrounding communities. Renewable Ravenswood, core to Rise’s growth-oriented strategy, is at the forefront of the ambitious clean energy transition taking place in New York State and will continue to provide reliable and cost-effective electricity for New York City for decades to come. Rise Light & Power is a wholly owned affiliate of LS Power. Click here for more information.
About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.