NYSERDA Provides Cash for Communities to Start 'Clean' Heating & Cooling Campaigns
A properly manufactured and installed forced air heating and air conditioning system does nothing to harm the environment, yet the State of New York thinks otherwise.
Using "clean" as a standard for heating and cooling products, the The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has made available up to $1.8 million for community campaigns to help residents and businesses install what are described as "clean heating and cooling systems". Sources say increasing the use of this technology will help achieve New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s clean energy goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030.
Alicia Barton, President and CEO, NYSERDA said, “Clean heating and cooling systems will provide users with energy bill savings, increased comfort levels and health benefits compared to conventional heating and cooling technologies. It’s a win-win for consumers and the environment and is vital to meeting Governor Cuomo’s nation-leading goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Clean Heating and Cooling Community Campaign initiative will bring together groups of potential customers so they can obtain discounts for air and ground source heat pumps, biomass heating and solar heating through aggregated purchases and a simplified procurement process.
Community campaigns can be proposed by municipalities or community based organizations and will receive up to $150,000 for each campaign, with additional funds available for workforce development ($50,000) and low-to-moderate income engagement ($150,000) strategies. Community campaigns should be in a county, city, borough or region with at least 40,000 residents and are encouraged to include local financial institutions, colleges/universities and local utilities.
Funding for this initiative includes $1.3 million for the community campaigns and $500,000 for technical assistance and tools to support the community campaigns. More information about the funding is available at NYSERDA’s website. The funding is made available through the State’s Clean Energy Fund.
This is the latest funding being made available to support clean heating and cooling technology. Earlier this year, NYSERDA announced the availability of $15 million in rebates for the installation of ground source heat pump systems for residences, businesses and institutions as well as $10 million to install air-source heat pump systems for residences.
The Clean Heating and Cooling Community Campaign initiative is based on the State’s Solarize campaigns which bring together clusters of residents and businesses to install solar. Since 2014, there have been 850 solar projects installed or are in development throughout New York, saving participants more than $2.9 million on upfront purchase costs.
Currently, fossil-fuel based thermal energy – primarily natural gas, propane and oil – is the main energy source for space heating and domestic hot water in the residential and commercial sectors. NYSERDA says those energy sources are responsible for about one-third of New York’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.