Welcome to the Winter 2021 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 38 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,
Southern Tier CEC Team
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Your CEC Coordinators have been busy since the launch of the Leadership Round! The Leadership Round comes with new funding, new and updated high impact actions, and a new way to track your progress and compare your accomplishments with other communities across the state. While there are many benefits to participation in this new round of the program, we know that the updates to actions and funding access can be confusing.
To help you get the most out of this new round, your Clean Energy Communities Coordinators hosted a webinar to go over these updates. With over $800,000 earmarked for the Southern Tier, you'll want to learn how your community can take advantage of this new funding opportunity!
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Interested in how you can participate? Did you participate in the last round and wonder where your community stands in the Leadership Round? Have additional questions not addressed in the webinar?
Contact your Clean Energy Community Coordinator today!
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Congratulations to the Village of Montour Falls for being the first municipality in the Southern Tier to adopt NY Stretch Energy Code!
The NYStretch Energy Code–2020 (NYStretch) is a voluntary, readily adoptable energy code that calls for higher efficiency standards in new and renovated building construction projects. NYSERDA developed NYStretch as a statewide model code for communities throughout the State to exceed their energy and climate goals by accelerating the savings obtained through their local building energy codes. NYStretch will provide municipal savings of approximately 11% over the 2020 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State.
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"As a Climate Smart and Clean Energy certified community, a sustainable Montour Falls cannot be a strong community without the tools to meet the future energy and climate goals."
-Mayor James Ryan
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NY Stretch was added as an action item for the Leadership Round of the Clean Energy Communities program. Communities who meet and submit the requirements for this action will receive 1,200 points (which go towards point based grants) and may be eligible for an action grant!
Currently, communities who complete the NYStretch Energy Code high-impact action and execute the local law or ordinance to adopt it will be eligible for an Action Grant. These grants are limited and competitive.
The first 100 small communities (population 1-39,999) to meet the requirements will we awarded a $5,000 grant. The first 40 large communities (40,000+) will be awarded $50,000. These grant awards will go quickly so contact your CEC Coordinator today to get started!
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Benchmarking has been upgraded in the Leadership Round and it is one of our most popular actions for municipalities. You may have seen our recent eblast about our newly created benchmarking video series, which offer step by step instructions on how use Portfolio Manager to complete this action.
Under the Leadership Round, there are now three sub-actions for the Benchmarking action which communities can earn up to 1,100 points:
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Benchmarking - Municipal Buildings - 100 Points
Submit a certified copy of an executed local law, ordinance, or resolution that requires the municipality to make available to the public energy use information for each municipal building 1,000 square feet or larger. This is similar to the original bench marking action item and communities can earn points for this retroactively.
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Benchmarking - Advanced Reporting - 200 Points
Post no less than 24-months of energy use information as described above for municipal buildings on your municipal website for the public and also share your Portfolio Manager account with NYSERDA.
- Benchmarking - Large Private Buildings - 800 Points (applicable to cities, towns, and villages over 40,000 pop.)
Submit a copy of an executed local law or ordinance, as described for Municipal Building above, but apply the requirements to the owners of commercial and multifamily buildings 25,000 square feet or larger.
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Benchmarking is a great place to start if your municipality is looking to get involved in the CEC program. If you are already a participating municipality, then now is the time to check to see if your community has already earned points for this action, and if sub-actions can be completed under the updated format!
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The Town of Veteran's Solar array is now online!
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"I have heard this said many times 'Success is merely a byproduct of hard work.' - Well, with the hard work, persistence and passion for the jobs they do, success comes naturally to the good folks of NYSERDA and NYS Southern Tier Clean Energy Communities Coordinators who are helping small towns and communities like Veteran, not only reduce our carbon footprint, but also guide us towards our goal of 100% renewable energy."
-Shawn Lapierre, Councilman for the Town of Veteran
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This newly installed solar array provides power for municipal buildings in the Town of Veteran and was funded through a $50,000 Clean Energy Communities grant. The solar array consists of 72 panels and a total capacity of 24.85kW. The annual estimated renewable energy generated is 31,918 kWhs.
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Governor Announces More Than $17 Million to Help Communities Drive High Impact Clean Energy Actions and Combat Climate Change
New CEC Leadership Round helps reduce energy costs and offers additional support for projects located in disadvantaged communities (Read More)
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DOE Announces $100 Million for Transformative Clean Energy Solutions
In support of the Biden Administration’s climate innovation agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $100 million in funding for transformative clean energy technology research and development via its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) OPEN 2021 funding opportunity. (Read More)
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Governor Cuomo Announces $15 Million Available for Piloting Community Thermal Systems to Reduce Buildings' Greenhouse Gas Emissions
New community heat pump systems pilot program will help construct community thermal networks to serve multiple buildings with heat pump technology and reduce emissions (Read More)
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Ignoring pandemic, Americans installed record amounts of solar and wind energy
Installations of wind and solar power soared 61% over the previous year, with 33.6 gigawatts added to the grid in 2020. That's enough energy to power roughly 11 million homes for a year and nearly 50% higher than the previous record, set in 2016. (Read More)
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LIFE Webinar Series: Fostering Equity in Local Clean Energy Policy
When: Thursday, February 25, 2021 1:30 pm
Where: Virtual! (Register here)
For local governments, prioritizing social equity in clean energy strategies begins with identifying groups historically underserved by energy efficiency and renewable energy investments, the disparate impacts of current policies, and who is poised to have a voice in future policy design and implementation. Join this webinar to learn about what can be done to address the barriers to clean energy facing marginalized communities, including an exploration of five ways that cities and their local utilities are creating, promoting, and supporting socially equitable clean energy strategies.
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The Mapping Inequality Project
When: Thursday, March 4, 2021; 12:00pm
Where: Virtual (Register here)
The Mapping Inequality Project created a foundational resource for unprecedented research, education, organizing, and policy advocacy on redlining and current environmental challenges. It provides publicly accessible digitized versions of redlining maps for about 200 cities. This has already generated an explosion of trailblazing work in the area of environmental justice (EJ) and systemic racism. Two of its founders will discuss the genesis, philosophy, methodology, and impact of this game changing project.
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PV Plus: Amplifying the Sustainability and Biodiversity Benefits of Solar
When: Thursday, March 4, 2021; 1:00 pm
Where: Virtual (Register Here)
In this webcast, forward-thinking energy advocates and buyers will tell how they are using procurement to accelerate innovation in the solar industry and realize additional environmental lift for their projects and brands. Among the things you will learn:
- How the vegetation under and around solar projects can provide numerous system and ecosystem service benefits, including additional sequestered carbon and increased abundance of pollinators
- Why Clif Bar & Company and Bank of America decided to pursue these practices
- How you can ensure responses to your RFPs include projects with amplified sustainability and biodiversity benefits
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FEMA Making Mitigation Work: Climate Change Research from Mitigation Matters Award Recipients
When: Tuesday, March 9, 2021; 1:00pm
Where: Virtual (Register Here)
The Natural Hazards Center has partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to create the Mitigation Matters Research Program which provides funding to researchers to conduct studies on hazard mitigation programs, policies, and implementation practices. To date, 19 research teams have been funded. These innovative and diverse mitigation projects include climate change research focused on household adaptation, impacts of climate induced coral bleaching on community wellbeing and hazard vulnerability, and use of traditional knowledge in response to sea level rise. We hope you will join us for this upcoming webinar that will feature presentations from three of our recently funded teams. Each presentation will last about 15 minutes, and then there will be time for questions and dialogue.
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