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Welcome to the Summer 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 Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Tioga, Tompkins, Broome, Chenango, and Delaware 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 21 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,
Katherine Herleman, and Terry Carroll - CEC Coordinators for the Southern Tier
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As many of you in Delaware and Chenango Counties already know, congratulations are in order to Tara Donadio for her new role with Capital District Regional Planning. Tara did a fantastic job promoting the Clean Energy Communities program in both Delaware and Chenango Counties and leaves large shoes to fill! While we look towards bringing on a new coordinator, Terry Carroll will fill in for communities looking for assistance in that region - please don’t hesitate to contact him if you are in either Delaware or Chenango Counties and have any questions!
The Southern Tier continues to make substantial progress on reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions by participating in both the Clean Energy Communities and Climate Smart Communities Programs. As of August 1st, 42 Southern Tier communities have completed 112 high-impact action items. We are excited to welcome many new participating communities, including the towns of Big Flats, Catharine, Cayuta, Conklin, Dryden, Elmira, and Hancock, the villages of Elmira Heights, Odessa, and Trumansburg, and many more municipalities around the region!
We are also excited about the progress that municipalities have made toward Climate Smart Communities (CSC) certification projects. The Village of Montour Falls has passed the pledge to work towards becoming the first certified Climate Smart Community in Schuyler County. The Village is now pursuing certification actions such as creating the first Heat Emergency Plan in Schuyler County and developing a Climate Action Plan which will create a planning and implementation pathway to carbon neutral government operations. CSC certification actions are also underway in the Town of Big Flats, which is collaborating with the Southern Tier Central Planning, as well as in Broome County, and the towns of Caroline and Danby in Tompkins County. Feel free to reach out to the CEC coordinators and coordinate with fellow municipal leaders to learn more. The CSC online portal and program structure were changed extensively on April 20th. Find out more here and feel free to schedule a CSC certification overview presentation with your CEC coordinator.
As we have stated previously, the increasing success of CEC in our region is something of which we are very proud, and we are encouraged that so many new communities are choosing to participate in and work towards CEC designation. Continuing success depends on how well all of us continue to support each other’s mutually-beneficial efforts as a growing network of local governments and community partners. Please continue to talk to your municipal peers about the CEC designation process and let the CEC coordinators know how we can create opportunities which support your networking.
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Marcham Hall, Village of Cayuga Heights Offices located in Tompkins County
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Located adjacent to the City of Ithaca in the heart of Tompkins County, the Village of Cayuga Heights is one of our newest Clean Energy Communities and the first to apply and receive a Block 3 grant worth $5,000!
As is sometimes the case, the road for Cayuga Heights spanned over the course of several months. The Village completed some actions quickly, while waiting for others to become available. In the end the Village accomplished designation by completing these four items: passing a Benchmarking resolution to monitor their buildings’ energy usage; adopting the Unified Solar Permit; having their codes officer participate in April’s Code Enforcement Training, and installing an EV charging station to accomplish the Clean Fleets action.
Their approach to Clean Fleets follows a similar model to what we see many municipalities considering. First, the Village contacted equipment contractors to receive quotes on how much a system might cost. After evaluating and selecting a contractor, the Village then purchased the equipment and set their Department of Public Works to site preparation.
Utilizing their own resources, the Village was able to cut down the price of installation and save the Village substantial money . The electrician who installed the system didn’t have to worry about digging a trench for the wires or installing bollards to protect the station, that was all done by the Village.
This is something we encourage municipalities to think about whenever they’re thinking about pursuing clean energy actions - what can your staff can do to reduce the up-front cost? Whether it’s having a Public Works crew dig trenches for a ground-mounted solar array or having a staff member comfortable with switching out lights - having municipal staff tackle some of the work can save communities money and make projects more financially viable.
In the case of Cayuga Heights, it made their installation of an electric vehicle charging station more affordable and allowed them to achieve another high-impact action item. Now, the Village is one of our latest communities and is already looking forward to accomplishing their next action: streetlight conversion to LED!
Utilizing their own resources, they were able to cut down the price of installation and save the village money. The electrician who installed the system didn’t have to worry about digging a trench for the wires or installing bollards to protect the station, that was all done by the municipality.
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LED Streetlights
Switching through the Utility Tariff
The topic of streetlights has been mentioned a couple of times in our newsletter over the last year but as an increasing number of communities start to look at switching their current stock of streetlights to LEDs we thought it would be worth revisiting.
There are two main ways in which you can switch your streetlights to energy efficient LEDs. The first, what we call the “Buyback Option” involves just that - buying back your streetlights from the utility company and then switching the lights and converting them over yourself or through a contractor. The second path, the “Utility Tariff” option, has municipalities paying the utility company a fee to switch the streetlights over to LEDs. Both options have pros and cons but for the purpose of this newsletter, we’ll focus on the Utility Tariff option.
Many municipalities in the Southern Tier were contacted by NYSEG in the early part of this year with a new, exciting option: the ability to switch their streetlights over to LEDs and thus begin to pay much less in streetlight fees. It proved to be an appealing option for a number of communities, and we began to hear reports of towns and village across our region sending NYSEG a letter of commitment saying they wanted to take part in the program. Unfortunately, shortly after launching the initiative, NYSEG went back to the Public Service Commission seeking approval to make some changes to what they had previously proposed. All those communities that had sent in a letter were put on hold taking us to all the way until now.
So, what’s different now? The Public Service Commission has just approved NYSEG’s changes (all of which actually benefited customers ) and we expect many municipalities to have their streetlights changed out in the upcoming months. The municipalities that choose the Utility Tariff option stand to save thousands of dollars in addition to saving energy, and we’ve seen most paybacks for the up-front fee that NYSEG charges come out to under a year!
There are a number of reasons to consider switching your streetlights to LEDs - for one, it can help your municipality achieve at least one item in the Clean Energy Communities Program! But more importantly, switching over to LEDs can save your municipality 30-50% in annual streetlight electricity expenditures and even more in terms of energy used!
If you’re wondering what converting to LEDs might look like for your municipality, the first step is contacting your utility company (NYSEG for most of our region) to see how much they’ll charge you to switch to LEDs. Once you have that number, get in touch with your coordinator to have them conduct a free financial analysis and find out what the savings could look like based on your current streetlight bills. If you decide it’s right for your municipality, contact NYSEG with a letter of commitment and you’ll be put on the list of communities they’ll switch out. It is an easy process that many municipalities have already begun, and we hope to see everyone take advantage of either the Buyback or Utility Tariff options in the years to come!
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As you can see from the graphic above, the Clean Energy Communities program in the Southern Tier is booming! Since our Spring Newsletter, eight communities have become designated Clean Energy Communities! They include: the Town of Hornellsville - the first community in Steuben County, the Village of Montour Falls - the first community in Schuyler County, the Towns of Meredith, Hamden and Middletown - all three sharing the honors of first in Delaware County, and more communities joining the ranks in Tompkins County including the towns of Enfield and Lansing as well as the Village of Cayuga Heights!
Congratulations to each of those communities! In total, we have over 42 active municipalities in the program with half of those designated! At this time all of the Block 2 $50,000 small/medium grants have been disbursed but there are still 23 Block 3 $5,000 grants of the 66 available statewide available!
The most popular actions continue to be those that involve passing a resolution to Benchmark buildings or to utilize the Unified Solar Permit as well as sending code officers to Code Enforcement Training, but we’re increasingly seeing communities take advantage of cost savings to pursue interior/exterior LED light upgrades through NYSEG leading to the Clean Energy Upgrades action! And that’s not even taking into account the 12 EV charging stations that have been installed in the Southern Tier since the start of this program, helping communities meet the Clean Fleets action!
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Binghamton University opened their Southern Tier Clean Energy Incubatorin April of this year. The incubator hosts nine different startups, including three previous 76West winners and is another example of clean energy jobs slowly starting to proliferate across the Southern Tier.
NYSERDA announced the redesign of NY-Sun’s Megawatt Block Program. The redesign, made in response to a rapidly changing market, includes expanding the incentives, supporting larger solar projects and encouraging development in a greater variety of locations, including brownfields, landfills and at affordable housing locations.
NYSDEC Commissioner Basil Seggos announced $4 million in grant funding for generators of excess wholesome food and food scraps to expand their capacity to donate wholesome food or divert it to organics recycling facilities. An estimated 40 percent of the food produced in the United States goes uneaten while about 2.5 million New Yorkers are food insecure.
Cornell University researchers began a new, innovative partnership to assess the potential for pollinator-friendly solar farms. To date, no U.S. studies have quantified the benefits of pollinator-friendly plantings on solar sites.
Governor Cuomo also announced the release of the state's comprehensive Energy Storage Roadmap to guide New York toward its nation-leading energy storage target. With this Roadmap, New York is jumpstarting the development of this clean energy technology, while supporting the Governor's energy storage target of 1,500 megawatts by 2025—the equivalent electricity demand of one-fifth of all New York homes.
The State announced a $250 Million Initiativeto Expand Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Across New York State. The electric vehicle expansion initiative, EVolve NY, will collaborate with the New York Power Authority. In addition to state funding, the program will also seek to create private sector partnerships through 2025 to aggressively accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles throughout New York State.
Curious about electric vehicles or EVs? The New York Power Authority (NYPA) began a new blog series, EV Owner Stories. Every week, NYPA will share theEV ownership experiences of NYPA employees who currently drive an electric vehicle.
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The next CEC-eligible NYSERDA Code Enforcement Training Workshop will take place at on Thursday, August 9th from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The workshop will be located at the Steuben County Civil Defense Building in Bath at 7720 State Route 54, Bath, New York. Code enforcement officers will earn eight hours of continuing education credit. In order to earn credit for the CEC high-impact action item, code enforcement officers must register and attend for both the Commercial and Residential sections of the workshop. Register separately for both sections of the workshop here and reach out to the CEC coordinators if you have any questions or concerns.
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Thursday, August 2nd 6:00PM - 7:30PM at Grove Distillery or Tuesday, August 7th from 6:00PM - 7:30PM at Hobart Village Hall join Southern Tier Solar Works for a Community Solar Event! Learn all about community solar from a presentation followed by an informal Q&A. If your curious how community solar works, or if you want to bring a solarize event to your town, these events is a great way to dip your toe in the water! For more information visit STSW's website!
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August 7th 11:00AM - 1:00PM Community Choice Aggregation Case Study Webinar: How Does Sustainable Westchester Do Its Groundbreaking Work? - Have you wondered how community choice aggregation works in practice? Find out in the behind the scenes look at Sustainable Westchester - the first CCA in New York State! Register here!
If you have an event related to energy that you would like others to know about in our Fall CEC Newsletter, please contact your CEC Coordinator.
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