What’s New with CEC?
The Clean Energy Communities program is periodically updated with new actions and new guidelines for completing and submitting documentation. There are also periodic updates to the amount of funding available to communities. This page is kept up-to-date with the latest news and rules for the program.
The most up-to-date version of the full Program Guidance Document can be found here, and any major revisions since the last update can be found below.
Updates as of December 2023 - launch of version 3.0
Made $25M in funding available.
Certain High Impact Actions (HIAs) (Unified Solar Permit, County Hosted Trainings – Battery Energy Storage for First Responders, Benchmarking – Municipal Buildings, and Opt-Out CDG) have been removed from the program.
Municipalities where the receiving elected official is unable to accept incoming funds are now eligible to propose with an agency or department as the lead with a letter of support from the Mayor’s Office.
Several new HIAs have been added including additive achievement tiers for both existing and new actions.
There are expanded grant opportunities for municipalities. Municipalities can now earn grants when achieving 1,000, 3,000, 5,000, 7,000, and 9,000 point thresholds. Grants will no longer be offered for municipalities that achieve 4,000 points.
Municipalities that were notified of grant eligibility, but not yet awarded a grant, will submit using Leadership Round rules and procedures after the release of CEC Round 3.0.
Municipalities that have already been awarded a grant in the Leadership Round are not eligible to receive a CEC Round 3.0 grant at the same threshold level.
Municipalities who enter 3.0 with 1,000 points to 2,900 points are eligible to earn the 1,000 Designation grant upon being approved for one (1) more HIA.
Municipalities that enter 3.0 with 5,000 or more points and did not receive a 5,000 Points- Based grant in the Leadership Round are eligible for CEC Round 3.0’s 5,000 Designation Grant upon being approved for one (1) more HIA.
Municipalities that enter CEC Round 3.0 with 7,000 or more points are eligible to earn the 7,000 Designation grant upon being approved for one (1) more HIA.
Grant funding for points-based grants has increased.
DAC bonus grant caps are removed. The DAC bonus grant has changed from $10,000 per grant to up to an additional 50% bonus funding per project implemented in a DAC census tract.
DAC bonus grants can now be earned for grants over $5,000 as opposed to $20,000 and over.
Grant projects for Non-Road Vehicles and Flexible Technical Assistance have been added to the pre-approved project types.
A streamlined grant participation path has been added to the program for grants less than $30,000.
Grant extension requests will no longer be offered, wherein in the Leadership Round, one extension was offered. Grant applications that are rejected will have one opportunity to resubmit another application within 60 days. In the Leadership Round there was no timing restriction on rejected applications
The scoring criteria for Custom Grant Projects has been changed to evaluate whether the proposed grant project is expected to achieve at least one ton of greenhouse gas savings per $10,000 spent on the project.
Communities that complete, or have completed, the HIA for Advanced Benchmarking are eligible for a Clean Energy Communities Energy Study at no cost to the municipality by submitting associated documentation.
Past Updates
Previous update documents are kept for posterity and can be found below.
Updates as of June 1, 2023
Contractual questions may be directed to Lori Armstrong at 866-NYSERDA ext. 3142
Removal of campaign High Impact Action (HIA) for Demand Response campaign.
Removal of the energy efficiency option for Clean Heating and Cooling campaigns and clarifying eligibility requirements for all campaign types.
Removal of Solar For All from Community Solar campaign types.
Increase the number of available grants for three types of Community Campaigns; Community Solar, Electric Vehicles, and Clean Heating and Cooling. Communities that successfully completed and were approved for one of these expanded HIA’s but did not receive a grant will be notified of funding eligibility.
Add HIA Achievement Levels 2 and 3 for Community Solar, Electric Vehicles, and Clean Heating and Cooling campaigns that allow for additional point and funding opportunities.
Add an additional pre-approved project application type for electric landscaping equipment.
Update the Disadvantaged Community Bonus to reflect the Climate Justice Working Group’s Disadvantaged Community definition.
Removed selection criteria for custom projects: “Does the proposal include an implementation component, not only a study or plan?”.