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Welcome to the Spring 2019 Edition of our Southern Tier Clean Energy Communities (CEC) quarterly newsletter!
The purpose of this newsletter is to keep municipalities, elected officials, and others in the counties of Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Delaware, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, and Tompkins informed about the great work being performed in the Southern Tier to make our communities more sustainable and energy efficient. As coordinators, our focus is NYSERDA's Clean Energy Communities initiative and other energy-related activities taking place throughout the region. We are available to assist you, your local government, and your community as you implement clean energy actions, save energy costs, create jobs, and improve the environment.
The Southern Tier region now has 34 officially designated Clean Energy Communities! Work continues with many other municipalities seeking designation and advice on energy usage. CEC coordinators are available to function as your municipality's energy advisor. If you have any questions regarding energy usage, or if you're interested in joining the movement towards becoming a Clean Energy Community, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Terry Carroll and Katherine Herleman - CEC Coordinators for the Southern Tier
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We would like to extend a big “thank you” to all of the communities which have participated thus far in the Clean Energy Communities program - 74 to date! Currently, the NYSERDA no-cost-share grant funding pool -- all Block 1, 2, and 3 grants -- has been exhausted.
This might cause some of you to think that our work is slowing down but it’s actually quite the opposite! Now is the perfect time for you to engage your Clean Energy Communities Coordinator to take a longer look at your benchmarking portfolios and/or energy audits to identify potential clean energy projects, access us for assistance with Climate Smart Communities CFA grant applications, and deepen program participation before the funding pool is replenished.
We're hard at work helping municipalities think about their upcoming switch to LED streetlights, installing EV chargers and considering EnergizeNY (Property Assessed) Clean Energy legislation or Battery Energy Storage System Laws. If you're thinking about getting involved in any of these activities, or want to be working towards clean energy goals but dont know where to start, please reach out to us - we're more than happy to help!
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Congratulations to the Town of Big Flats, which just became a designated Clean Energy Community in April!
Located in western Chemung County, Big Flats was established in 1822 and has a population of about 7,700. Their supervisor Ed Fairbrother, Department of Public Works Deputy Commissioner Chris Austin, Code Enforcement Officer Tom Whispel, and Town Clerk Laura Cross have put in an amazing amount of work over the past three years to reduce energy costs and improve building energy efficiency throughout their entire municipal campus. Big Flats has completed Benchmarking, the Unified Solar Permit, Code Enforcement Training, and Clean Energy Upgrades. The Town is also in the process of LED streetlight conversion and Climate Smart Communities certification.
As a result of the Clean Energy Upgrades process, Big Flats discovered that it has reduced its building electricity use by 44.6% after completing three phases of a comprehensive interior and exterior LED lighting upgrades project. After completing energy benchmarking on their municipal buildings, Big Flats is now participating in our Energy Action Plan Pilot and will get a tailor-made plan that identifies additional cost savings via potential HVAC updates to its beautiful Community Center which serves at least several hundred residents on a daily basis.
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This quarter’s highlighted action item is the Climate Smart Communities (CSC) program, which is co-administered through New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation. And with a large number of relevant grants and a large pool of funding available during the current CFA cycle, it’s not a moment to soon!
Climate Smart Communities is one of the High-Impact Action Items of the Clean Energy Communities Program, but is also a collection of points-bearing actions itself. Municipalities can earn points towards designation by completing actions related to energy efficiency, waste and GHG emission reduction, adaptation and resilience-building, and more! The full list of actions can be found here, and Terry and Katherine are available resources as well for any community looking to explore the CSC process.
The first step that a municipalities takes to become a Climate Smart Community is passing a resolution stating their pledge to become a Climate Smart Community - a template is available here. This step is voluntary and non-binding; taking the pledge does not legally require the community to take any additional steps within the program, however, passing the pledge makes the municipality “registered” Climate Smart Community. From there, a municipality will work to complete actions within the CSC program, documenting and uploading their progress to the website.
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Once a municipality earns enough points (120), completes their mandatory actions (appointing a CSC coordinator and establishing a task force), and completes the requisite number of priority actions (3) than the community is recognized as a Bronze level community. Further actions, points and priority actions can than result in achieving the Silver level. Full guidance on Getting Started can be found here.
Municipalities can apply for funding to pursue certification actions as well as to implement the program. Communities that are certified are recognized as leaders in climate innovation and will receive added points to grants for both certification and implementation actions.
This year there is up to $11.7 Million available from DEC for Climate Smart certification actions, so be sure to review this year’s CFA guidance for more information. An important note is that a municipality does not need to be a certified or registered Climate Smart Community to pursue funding. If you’re considering applying for a grant, please dont hesitate to contact the coordinator for your area!
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We’d like to congratulate several other municipalities which recently attained Clean Energy Communities designation:
- Village of Burdett (Schuyler County)
- Town of Catlin (Chemung County)
- Village of Trumansburg (Tompkins County)
- Town of Hancock ( Delaware County)
- Broome County
Burdett recently completed the construction of a three-million-dollar, energy-efficient building which houses both its offices and fire hall as well as the installation of the second municipal-owned EV charger in Schuyler County. Catlin is currently undertaking a Solarize campaign and planning energy efficiency updates to its Town Barn. The Village of Trumansburg recently converted to air-source heat pumps and switched the lights in their offices to LEDs. The Town of Hancock similarly converted their town garage lights to LEDs and have participated in a regional community solar campaign.
Broome County passed EnergyNY (PACE) legislation, adopted a benchmarking resolution, participated in solarize campaigns and last year installed a huge 5.2MW DC array expected to produce over 6 million kilowatt hours, save the County $140,000 per year and reduce their emissions from buildings over 1,000 sq. ft. by over 50%! These actions combined to help Broome County achieve designation and take home our last Southern Tier Block 2 grant for large communities of $150,000.
Congratulations to all of our designated communities - now up to 34! As we mentioned in Coordinator’s Corner, just because the grant money is gone, that doesnt mean we’re slowing down! We hope to see many more communities become designated and hope to continue working with already designated communities to achieve even more actions!
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Nyack and Canandaigua named Bronze certified Climate Smart Communities, 7.6 million now living in CSCs
The Village of Nyack in Rockland County has achieved Bronze Certification Status in the Climate Smart Communities program through NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and NYSERDA. In a celebration during Earth Week in late April, the Village of Nyack was recognized as both a bronze CSC and a NYSERDA Clean Energy Community. Canandaigua was also praised at an event by Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul, celebrating the city’s commitment to its CSC programs. There are now over 7.6 Million New Yorkers living in Climate Smart Communities state-wide and the program continues to grow!
Clean Technica - New York allocated 280 mil for energy storage
New York State has allocated an additional $280 Million to research and implement energy storage projects throughout the state, with the aim to improve and expand battery storage capacity. This technology is an important add-on for solar- and wind-capture technologies, and will greatly increase the accessibility of renewable energy to New Yorkers. This funding surge helps New York align with it’s renewable energy targets for the future, as well as accompanies a recent surge in funding for Large-Scale-Renewable Projects. With this funding for storage projects announced alongside the third solicitation for LSR projects in NYS, the state should see an expansion in the sector in the coming years.
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Beyond the PPA: A Company's Guide to Renewable Energy Procurement
Thursday, June 6th 2019 at 2:00PM
While geared more towards corporations of all sizes, this webinar may prove interesting to communities looking to procure renewables for their municipal operations through a power purchase agreement. This webinar will provide information on what companies should know before engaging with their utility, what – and who – to bring to the table, and examples of the innovative ways businesses and utilities are working together today.
Register for the webinar here.
NYSERDA and National Grid Energy Solutions Summit - Turning Stone Resort and Casino, Verona
Thursday, June 11th
The Energy Solutions Summit will bring together two of the largest players in Energy Efficiency – National Grid and NYSERDA. More than 300 of National Grid’s large commercial, industrial, institutional and municipal businesses, will be present to showcase the power of energy efficiency, provide industry highlights and education on Electric Vehicles/Fleets, Demand Response, and more. For more information, please visit the website below.
For more information, please contact events@nationalgrid.com
Retrofitting to Scale: 50,000 buildings in 10 Years - Kimmel Center for University Life, NYC
Tuesday, June 18th, 8:30AM - 12:30PM
New York City Council just passed the most ambitious climate legislation for buildings enacted by any city in the world. This historic law sets tough carbon emissions caps for energy use in NYC’s largest buildings starting in 2024. The new legislation impacts about 50,000 buildings and will lead to thousands of building retrofits each year. To comply with these regulations, building retrofits will have to occur on a scale never before experienced in NYC—or anywhere else. Retrofitting to Scale will explore solutions for NYC and other metro areas. What are the barriers to upgrading buildings now? What must change to make scaling retrofits feasible? What business opportunities will emerge? We will explore these questions over three thought-provoking sessions.
Registration Required. Register here.
Southern Tier REDC CFA Workshop - SUNY Delhi, Delhi, NY
Friday, June 28th, 11:00AM
Join representatives from the Southern Tier REDC as they discuss the 2019 New York State CFA cycle.
RSVP here.
If you have an upcoming event that you think municipal officials across the Southern Tier REDC should be aware of, please email us and we'll include it in our next newsletter!
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