To educate residents about available incentives and grants from NYS to help with weatherization, energy efficiency, and clean heating and cooling technology installation. Municipal governments who promote participation in these programs can be eligible for grant money to be used for community investment.
Todd – Clean Energy Communities program
• Website: https://southerntiercec.org/
• Municipal governments can promote and provide residential access to new, innovative technologies, such as heat pumps, that will generate value and savings for residents.
o Municipal governments can help increase community access to clean energy
• Our program also helps with community investment. We work with municipal governments to update municipal operated resources such as vehicles, buildings, streetlights
o Investments are enduring and provide cost savings to the municipality and its residents
• Governments that actively promote community campaigns to assist with the uptake of EVs, subscription solar, and energy efficiency/clean heating & cooling technologies
• Provide grant money to help projects come to fruition
• All our programs provide technical assistance to help governments move forward and to help community members move forward with creating a vibrant local economy
Eileen Hanrahan – Community Energy Engagement Program/Smart Energy Choices
1. Programs directly related to CEC funds:
• Empower, Assisted Home performance, Comfort Homes incentives for home energy upgrades ranging from $1000- $10,000
• Free home energy audit
• Grant funding up to $10,000 available for home energy upgrades such as insulation, air sealing, and, possibly, a new heating system. (Dave and Irene have utilized this program so Dave can riff a bit about his own experience on what they got done or ask me a question or two about the energy audit and upgrades)
Additional points:
1. Renewable Heat Program: Incentives available to replace wood stoves and pellet stoves/boilers. Heat Pumps are also options here and often the better upgrade option- Adam’s program
2. incentives available for options to go solar
3. website smartenergychoices.org
Adam Flint – Network for a Sustainable Tomorrow (NEST)/HeatSmart Southern Tier
• Website: www.nynest.org
• Home energy audit and energy efficiency upgrades (see above for details)
• Heat pump program: electric heat pumps provide highly efficient clean, safe, and comfortable heating. Homeowners heating with oil, propane, or kerosene can realize significant year-over-year savings in energy costs.
o Incentives for everyone
Geothermal (ground source heat pumps)
• 1500/10k BTU (typical NYSEG incentive range $3750-9000)
• 26% federal tax credit
Cold Climate Air Source Heatpumps (mini splits)
• $100-/10k BTU (Typical NYSEGincentive range $2500-6000) for whole-house systems
• $500 incentive for supplemental systems
Heat pump hot water heaters are electric water heat combined with a heat pump for efficient operation
• $700 off the price of a Highefficiency HPWH
• $300 federal tax credit
Low and moderate-income incentives are very generous. If you qualify for HEAP you qualify for this (too much detail to go into here)
• NEST offers support for anyone with clean energy questions
• For details and to sign up go to nynest.org
