Headlines 2016
Central New York Enterprise Development Fund—September 2016
The CNY Enterprise Development
Corporation has closed on $536,180 in loans in 2016.
Funds provided include $150,000 in financing to Good
Nature Brewery in Hamilton to support the construction
of a new brewing facility. Also extended is a $250,000
loan to Paradise Companies, LLC of Syracuse to support
the company’s working capital needs during its
renovation of the Excellus building in downtown
Syracuse. Several new RMAP loans totaling $60,000 were
made to various small, rural businesses including a
start-up bicycle shop in Auburn. CNYEDC also
supported the expansion of a WBE electrical and security
system designer and contractor, Professional Tradesman,
Inc. in Syracuse with a $75,000 working capital loan.
Streamlined Solar Permit—September 2016
As part of its ongoing work to reduce
solar soft costs, the CNY RPDB helps municipalities to
adopt the New York State Unified Solar Permit, a
combined building and electrical permit for small
rooftop solar PV systems up to 12 kW. The permit was
developed by NYSERDA to reduce the time and cost of
installing solar, and is part of the state’s NY-Sun
Initiative to add more than 3 GW of solar by 2023. To
date, 51 municipalities in Central New York have adopted
the permit with the assistance of the CNY RPDB,
representing more than 40% all adoptees in the state.
Municipalities that adopt the NYS Unified Solar Permit
are eligible to receive an incentive payment from
NYSERDA of $2,500 or $5,000 depending on population
size.
SolarizeCNY Joint Municipal Solar Procurement Initiative: Request for Proposals—September 23, 2016
On September 23, 2016, the CNY RPDB issued a Request for
Proposals for the development of more than 40 MW of
solar PV projects located on 42 buildings and properties
owned by more than 20 municipalities and other
participating organizations. The CNY RPDB screened 120 sites to identify the
most technically and economically feasible sites to be
included in the SolarizeCNY initiative. Nearly 28 MW of
the total solar PV capacity may be developed as
community shared solar projects under the state’s
Community Distributed Generation program, which will
provide affordable clean energy to residential customers
that cannot install solar PV on their homes.
NYSERDA NY Prize Stage I Study Complete—September 2016
A consultant study
commission by the CNY RPDB has been completed regarding
a Syracuse Microgrid Stage I Feasibility Study under
NYSERDA’s NY Prize Program-
a first-in-the nation
$40 million competition to help communities create
microgrids. Microgrids are
local energy networks that are able to separate from the
larger electrical grid during extreme weather events or
emergencies, providing power to individual customers and
crucial public services such as hospitals, first
responders, and other critical facilities.
The CNY
study originated out of an interest from National Grid
to improve the system serving the area around Upstate
Hospital’s Community General Campus. The feasibility
study includes details analyzing the potential
capabilities of the microgrid, preliminary technical
design, and an assessment of the microgrids commercial
and financial feasibility. The results of the Feasibility Study were very
favorable and additional funding is being pursued by the
agecny under NY Prize Stage II. You can read the full
Feasibility Study, and the other 82 completed in Stage I
at
https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Programs/NY-Prize/Feasibility-Studies.
Minoa Municipal LED Street Light Project—September 19, 2016
On September 19th, the Village of
Minoa voted to move forward with conversion of all 198
cobra head style roadway luminaires to LED in accordance
with recommendations made by the CNY RPDB through the
CNY Bright Lights program. A formal request was sent to
National Grid on September 22nd to move
forward with this project which is estimated to save the
Village about $4,000 per year, reducing annual emissions
by 13 MTCO2e.
NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities—August 3, 2016
On August 3, 2016, Governor Cuomo announced the launch
of the Clean Energy Communities (CEC) program to help
local governments across the state reduce energy
consumption and drive clean energy use in their
communities. The CNY RPDB is leading a team of regional
outreach coordinators in the Central New York, Finger
Lakes, Southern Tier, and Western New York regions.The CNY RPDB and its team will provide technical
assistance, step-by-step guidance, project development
support and other tools and resources to municipalities
and communities.
The CEC provides grants, direct technical support to
communities, and recognition to local governments that
demonstrate leadership in the area of clean energy.
NYSERDA has identified ten High Impact Actions that
local governments can take to save money, foster a
vibrant economy, and improve the environment. By
completing four of the ten actions, municipalities shall
earn the CEC designation and become eligible for grants
up to $250,000 to support additional clean energy
projects.
CNY Electric Vehicle Charging Station Plan—July 2016
With support from NYSERDA, the CNY RPDB completed the
Central New York Electric Vehicle Charging Station Plan
in July 2016. The objective of the plan
is to recommend strategies for supporting current
and future electric vehicle (EV) drivers travelling
within the region and between NYS regions. Since EVs
have a more limited range than conventional internal
combustion engine (ICE) vehicles that use petroleum
fuels, the most critical area of support is providing
charging opportunities to EV drivers. Therefore, this
Plan identifies gaps where public infrastructure is not
currently available in the region to support EV drivers
and recommends charging station installations in key
locations to establish a comprehensive charging network.
In addition to more charging stations, the plan also
outlines critical implementation barriers for charging
station installations or EV adoption and recommends
strategies for addressing them.
CNY RPDB Board Meeting - NOAA Nomination for Eastern Lake Ontario National Maritime Sanctuary—June 2016
On June 22, 2016, the CNY RPDB
hosted a Board meeting in the City of Oswego for the
purpose of discussing the NOAA recently reopened call
for nominations from Great Lakes communities for the
establishment of National Maritime Heritage Sanctuaries.
NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries has advised
a regional task force of four Counties, in the
development of a robust nomination for the eastern end
of Lake Ontario underwater cultural resource collection
which is extensive and impressive. Led by Oswego County,
the collaborative project to nominate approximately
2,000 sq. miles of eastern Lake Ontario for the
distinctive National Heritage designation could mean
substantial related job growth and millions of dollars
in new economic development annually in the Central New
York Region. CNY
RPDB has contributed substantially to the written
nomination, organization of the working group, and the
public outreach campaign for letters of support from a
diverse collection of supporters that have been
assembled for inclusion in the nomination which is due
to be submitted to NOAA for review in late 2016.
CNY Bright Lights launched—April 2016
CNY Bright Lights, an initiative of
the CNY RPDB created to assist municipalities in
converting streetlights to light emitting diode (LED)
technology, was launched in April 2016. Through
this initiative, the CNY RPDB will provide technical
assistance to municipalities in Cayuga, Cortland,
Madison, Onondaga, and Oswego Counties in working with
utility companies to purchase streetlights to convert to
LED and/or to convert utility-owned lighting assets to
LED. The agency will provide cost benefit analyses
of the two options and help municipalities identify and
apply for funding for LED streetlight conversion
projects.
Solarize CNY—April 2016
SolarizeCNY is sponsoring a general education campaign
for their 2016 campaign. This campaign will allow
customers the opportunity to learn about solar energy
for their home or business, and to sign up with one of
our partner installers. Additionally, with the advent of
Community Solar in New York State, SolarizeCNY will be
giving an introduction to this new method of going
solar, with the opportunity to participate in a
community solar project starting in 2017. This
information will be available at the dozen solar fairs
that the campaign is sponsoring throughout the fall and
winter.
Vision CNY—Regional Partnership for Comprehensive Planning—March 2016
Partially funded through NYSERDA’s Cleaner Greener
Communities Program, the CNY RPDB is providing
assistance to twelve Central New York municipalities in
the inventory, analysis, establishment, and adoption of
sustainable land use planning and development tools.
Eligible planning partnership initiatives include: development of Municipal Comprehensive Plans,
Comprehensive Plan Updates, separate Components of
Comprehensive Plans (such as “Greenprint Plans”
identifying local conservation land priorities, or
Complete Streets or Open Space Plans), New Smart Growth
Zoning, and Sustainable Land Use Updates to Local
Ordinances. Assistance and outreach to Cayuga, Cortland,
Madison, Onondaga and Oswego County included a baseline
analysis of planning efforts and regulatory tools, and
development of County-wide mapping of Potential
Conservation Lands.
CNY My Wind—January 2016
With support from the USDA, the CNY RPDB is preparing a
feasibility study for a community wind farm in the Town
of Fabius. Community wind projects can be jointly owned
by a variety of individuals including local small
business owners, farmers, local organizations including
schools and universities as well as municipalities. The
key feature of community wind is that local community
members own and have a significant financial stake in
the project beyond just land lease payments and tax
revenue. Community wind projects can be any size,
ranging from a single turbine to more than one hundred,
yet typically serve local communities or consumers. The
agency has retained the services of EAPC to collect wind
speed and other data using a wind measurement tower that
was installed in January 2016. The tower will collect
data for at least 12 months, and the data will be used
to complete technical and financial modeling for a
community wind farm project.
Central New York Regional Recreation and Heritage Plan—January 2016
Funded through NYS Department of State Local
Waterfront Revitalization Program development of the
CNY Regional Recreation and Heritage Plan is in
progress. Mapping for the plan identifies a five-county
regionally inter-linked recreational and heritage
network linking hiking trails, bikeways, public
waterfront access, scenic byways, natural areas, working
landscapes, historic sites and heritage areas, rural
hamlets, museums, festivals, events and other points of
recreational and heritage interest. The plan is
concerned with regional natural and cultural resource
protection, balanced with development of improved
access, connectivity and low impact use, and goals for
establishing a regional outdoor recreation and heritage
identity and way-finding system to guide future visitors
along interlinking routes connecting many of Central New
York’s unique and interesting places.
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