NYPA Receives Strong Response to Nuclear RFIs
The Power Authority has issued an RFI as part of its initiative to develop 1 gigawatt of advanced nuclear energy in Upstate New York, seeking input from communities and potential development partners.
In October 2025, the New York Power Authority kicked off its first solicitations as part of a new effort to develop 1 gigawatt (GW) of advanced nuclear energy. These solicitations included a Request for Information (RFI) directed at Upstate New York communities interested in hosting an advanced nuclear project developed by NYPA, as well as an RFI seeking information from potential development partners with expertise in developing, constructing, operating, or servicing nuclear power projects.
Following Governor Hochul’s initial announcement in June 2025, NYPA received expressions of interest from numerous community leaders and elected officials who were eager to host an advanced nuclear facility. The RFIs were issued to formalize the process of gathering information from interested communities and identifying potential sites that meet the criteria for hosting a nuclear power facility.
NYPA received a substantial response to the solicitations: 23 submissions from potential developers or partners, and eight submissions from Upstate New York communities. The RFI process will not directly result in an award—right now, it’s all about gathering useful information to shape the project to align with what communities want and need.
NYPA is currently reviewing the responses from both the Developer/Partner and Community RFIs to guide future engagement plans with communities and potential partners. The enthusiastic response to NYPA’s initial round of solicitations reflects a strong interest from communities and collaborators eager to support NYPA in leading New York toward a clean energy future.
Impressive how NYPA is flipping the script by starting with community buy-in instead of imposing projects. The 23 developer responses versus 8 comunity submissions suggests real competition might drive better terms than the usual monopolistic RFP process. I've seen too many public energy iniatives get bottlenecked by vendor lock-in early on.