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Just In! for April 13, 2024
The weekly newsletter of the New York Geothermal Energy Organization (NY-GEO)
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Just In! is NY-GEO's weekly news feed for members. See more information on memberships here. If we send you a complimentary copy and you're not a member of NY-GEO, it means we value your role in the transition to renewable heating, but without a membership, please don't count on getting Just In! weekly. For past issues, check out the Just In! Archive available on the NY-GEO.org website. | |
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That’s a Wrap! NY-GEO 2024 Albany Spring Conference Reflects Geo Industry Advances While Eclipsing 2023 – Literally – We appreciate the 455 attendees, Exhibitors, Sponsors, and Speakers that made the conference a success !!!
Keynote Rory Christian, Chair of the NY Public Service Commission, shared this on LinkedIn “Having attended this conference many times over the years, it was exciting to see the level of interest from the participants and the leaps and bounds by which the industry has grown over the years.”
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Zeyneb Magavi, Executive Director of HEET
Rory Christian Chair, NYS Public Service Commission,
John Ciovacco, NY-GEO Board & Conference Co-Chair
Chad Brezynskie, Co-Founder and Vice-President at GeoSmart Energy, shared his thoughts: “Thank you for putting together another tremendous event in Albany, NY! What can’t you do? This year's event eclipsed last year's record breaker. It again brought together our leaders, competitors, innovators, and policymakers to a place where we all became one working together to move the ‘ground source’ industry forward. It’s inspiring to be a small part of what this group has achieved in NYS and what they are still working so hard at every day. To the geothermal industry in NYS, you are the epicenter of the industry’s progress in the USA. If you missed this event, register for the fall conference in Brooklyn, NY!”
Brock Yordy’s Driller team did a nice initial recap of the conference published here on Linked-In.
NY-GEO 2024 Fall Conference in Brooklyn will include:
+Pre-Conference Site Visits to GSHP Projects in NYC
+40 Educational Sessions in 4 concurrent tracks
+Over 60 Exhibitors showcasing Products and Services
+Keynote addresses from:
...Doreen M. Harris, President and CEO, NYSERDA
...Matthew Ketschke, President, Consolidated Edison Company of New York
+Two and half days to mix mingle and network
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Dr. Alexis McKittrick, US DOE Program Manager for Hydrothermal Resources and Low Temperature & Coproduced Resources, gives the luncheon keynote at NY-GEO 2024
Washington Goes for Unitary Rate Base – “Washington passed the first law in the United States that outlines a pathway for a combined gas and electricity utility to transition away from gas for all of its customers. Proposed by Puget Sound Energy, the bill allows the utility to merge electric and gas customers into a single rate base and supports electrification of whole neighborhoods to allow for the decommission of gas lines in the future. Advocates worked through challenging negotiations to ensure low-income ratepayers will be first in line for electrification funding. Washington State requires all utilities to achieve 100 percent clean electricity by 2045, and this law paves the way for the state’s largest dual-fuel utility to decarbonize as well.” Article link here.
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Beth Doglio – Sponsor of Washington unitary rate base bill
DPS Sends Out 12 UTEN Compliance Letters; 9 Projects Moving to Stage 2 – On Tuesday afternoon, the NYS Dept. of Public Service sent 12 compliance letters to the 7 investor-owned utilities, notifying 9 of the Utility Thermal Energy Network and Jobs Act projects (UTEN for short) are permitted to move from Stage 1 “Feasibility”, to Stage 2 “Detailed Engineering”. Three (3) of the UTEN projects were informed of specific “feasibility concerns” and will require resubmission to address these issues before proceeding to Stage 2. The UTENJA legislation was signed by Governor Hochel in August of 2022 and after several submissions, three technical conferences, plus guidance orders from DPS, these compliance letters represent a big step forward. To find out more visit the Case 22-M-0429 NYSDPS-DMM for the letters and other documents related to the UTEN efforts.
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Owen Brady-Traczyk of National Grid speaks about UTEN Projects at NY-GEO 2024 last Tuesday (2024 04 09).
ANOTHER Fossil Fuel Building Explosion – Not Gas This Time – Propane – Thea DiGiammerino, Carla Rojo and Kirsten Glavin – NBC 5 - “A tree falling onto propane tanks likely caused a house explosion that killed a woman in Derry, New Hampshire, on Thursday, fire officials said in an update Friday. The victim has been identified as 76-year-old Laura Percival, of Derry. The New Hampshire Medical Examiner's Office said she died from complications of blast injuries.” Article link here.
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Actor Mark Ruffalo Advocates for NY HEAT Act in New Video – “New Yorkers, did you know we are all paying to build new gas pipelines across our state? Please join me in calling on @GovKathyHochul, @NYSenate @AndreaSCousins & @NYSA_Majority @CarlHeastie to stop pipelines & save you money by passing the full #NYHEAT Act in the budget!” Video link here.
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ABC TV Covers Environmental Leaders of Color – NY-GEO Members Marvin Church and Dr. Diana Williams have led an important initiative in Westchester County that has been educating and empowering local residents of color – and youth in particular - to take leadership on environmental issues. The ABC News program Here and Now recently interviewed Dr. Williams and featured the organization in a 14-minute Earth Day segment. Article/video link here.
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The co-founder of Environmental Leaders of Color, Dr. Diana Williams, joins Here and Now to talk about her organization’s mission and goals.
Markey, Whitehouse Launch Campaign Against American Gas Association - Nico Portuond – E&E News “Two Senate climate hawks are putting the country’s biggest natural gas trade group in the crosshairs of another campaign to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its lobbying against strong action against global warming. Senate Budget Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Tuesday joined leaders from the Gas Leaks Project on Capitol Hill to urge the American Gas Association against using ratepayer money for what the lawmakers call disinformation campaigns. ‘The American Gas Association has known about the health harms of gas for decades but worked for years to mislead the public,’ said Markey. ‘To make matters worse, the American Gas Association gets funding for its misinformation campaigns from your gas bills.’ ” Article link here.
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Washington Overrides Obligation to Serve Gas – “This geothermal bill amends the state’s ‘obligation to serve’ for gas utilities to allow them to sell thermal energy instead of gas to customers… The Washington budget supports the bill with a $25 million grant to fund gas utilities’ pilot programs.” Thanks to NY-GEO member Paul Coons for this tip. Article link here.
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Alex Ramel, sponsor of Washington State bill to expand the “obligation to serve”
What’s Holding Up the State Budget? – Emma Whitford – City Limits – “As state budget negotiations drag nearly two weeks late, a housing deal seems likely to coalesce—but it’s not there yet, as consequential details remain fluid. Speaking to City Limits this week, sources familiar with the negotiating terrain said an agreement is possible that, broadly, incentivizes new housing development through a tax incentive program and introduces new eviction protections for some tenants… Unlike last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul has opened the door to some version of good cause eviction legislation, which has been a priority for tenant advocates since 2019 but has floundered for years in the face of strong opposition from the real estate industry. ” Article link here.
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Bloomberg Details Negative Impact for Homeowners of ICC Retreat on Strong Codes – Kendra Pierre-Louis - Bloomberg - "Buyers of new homes in the US may find themselves saddled with electrical systems better suited to the 20th century than the 21st. The International Code Council, which sets model construction standards for new homes, was expected to include building electrification measures in its 2024 energy code on March 20. But following appeals lodged by industry groups, the ICC board moved the measures to the code’s appendices, effectively making them optional, as first reported by the Huffington Post. If new homes aren’t wired for increasing power needs from electric appliances and car chargers, it will bump the effort and cost of making such upgrades onto homeowners — a deterrent to going electric. Energy efficiency advocates say this could slow the pace of the energy transition, costing both jobs and the planet." Article link here.
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RMI Read 6,795 Pages of State Climate Plans. Here’s a First Look at What They Found. – Molly Freed and Wendy Jaglom-Kurtz (RMI), Rachel Patterson and Medhini Kumar (Evergreen Collaborative), Ruby Wincele and Paola Ferreira Miani (Climate XChange) – “Almost every state has stood up to take action on the latest IRA (Inflation Reduction Act funding) opportunity… This repository of action plans is our first opportunity to see how states are collectively approaching and tackling the climate crisis, with a huge amount of new information about each state’s approach to reducing climate pollution.” Article link here.
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Where Green Hydrogen Belongs – And Where It Doesn’t – Cihang Yuan and Daniel Riley, Staff for the Renewable Thermal Coalition – Utility Dive “DOE’s National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap shows that by 2040, clean hydrogen production will reach 20 million metric tons, which only doubles the amount of fossil-based hydrogen currently produced in the U.S. Demand from three heavy industrial sectors alone — chemical, steel and cement production — could exceed that, estimated at approximately 26 million metric tons in 2050… Indiscriminate use of the limited supply of clean hydrogen will delay the critically necessary progress in these hard-to-abate sectors and waste valuable resources… For example, a hydrogen boiler requires five to six times more renewable electricity to generate the same amount of heat as an electric heat pump, making it inefficient for residential heating.” Article link here.
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Fracked Gas Industry is Gaslighting Us – Elliott Negin – Union of Concerned Scientists – “A (1970) study conducted by the government’s National Air Pollution Control Administration found a link between outdoor NO2 exposure and childhood respiratory problems. The lead author of that study, Dr. Carl Shy…recalled that when he met with gas industry representatives after publishing the study, they conceded that gas stoves emit NO2 and that hood vents were not strong enough to remove it…Since then, however, the gas industry—much like the oil industry—has cribbed heavily from the tobacco industry’s playbook to block government regulation by manufacturing doubt about the reality and seriousness of its ‘NOx problem.’… Where did the gas industry pick up the finer points of PR disinformation? From the very same firm that orchestrated Big Tobacco’s campaign in the 1950s and 1960s to sow doubt about the link between smoking and cancer: Hill & Knowlton.” This in-depth article also examines the gas industry’s role in scuttling Berkeley, CA’s’ requirement that new buildings be constructed without fossil fuel appliances. Article link here.
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Dr. Carl Shy
Solar Beats Coal In Texas – Julian Spector – Canary Media – Last month, for the first time ever, solar production in Texas’ ERCOT market (which supplies most of the state) outpaced coal-fired generation. Texas gets the majority of its electricity from gas plants, but the share from solar exceeded 10%, while coal’s share dropped below 10%. Texas has the most utility-scale solar capacity installed of any state, and in 2024 will install more grid battery capacity than California. However, Texas still uses more coal than any other state. Article link here
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NY-GEO Conference Highlights:
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This is a new section for Just In! that will feature content from previous NY-GEO Conferences that you may have missed or would like to revisit. Each session will have the slide deck available for download and a YouTube video link of the recorded session. Enjoy!
Geothermal Heat Pumps: The ultimate thermal energy storage - Presented at NY-GEO 2023 in Albany -
The CLCPA tells us in 30 years the vast majority of NYS’s buildings will need to convert to electrically driven space heating and hot water. Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) are known for their ultra-high efficiencies for heating and cooling, and unparalleled environmental benefits. GSHPs also rank near the top of a variety of important metrics important to electric utilities, such as peak shaving, grid utilization, distributed energy resource (DER), energy intensity and carbon emission avoidance. There’s emphasis on the development of electric battery storage solutions to address a number of these metrics. We need to begin to appreciate that a closed-loop geothermal borehole is perhaps the strongest DER candidate, bringing 75% of its energy from a renewable resource, requiring practically no maintenance and having a useful life beyond 100 years.
Presenters:
· Jens Ponikau / Buffalo Geothermal, NY-GEO Board
· Jared Rodriguez / Emergent Urban Concepts
Presentation Deck Download
Session YouTube Recording
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Jared Rodriguez of Emergent Urban Concepts and Jens Ponikau / Buffalo Geothermal, NY-GEO Board present at NY-GEO 2023 in Albany on April 26, 2023
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A Group of Women Took Switzerland to Court Over Climate Inaction—and Won – Kiley Price – Inside Climate News – “Four years ago, a group of women, aged 64 and up, filed a lawsuit before Europe’s top human rights court against Switzerland for violating their rights by not protecting them from the health impacts of climate change. On Tuesday, the court decided in their favor, marking the first time an international court has ruled on governments’ legal obligations regarding climate change…The ruling will have far reaching impacts. Most directly, it is binding on all European countries, meaning that if those nations don’t align their climate plans with the science-based targets of the Paris Agreement, they could face litigation in national and international courts.” Article link here.
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"We know from a recent study that every tenth of a degree in temperature rise that we prevent keeps 140 million of our brothers and sisters in habitable zones on this planet. And nothing has changed my basic conviction about the key: we need to keep building huge movements to finally break the political power of the fossil fuel industry and force the emergency conversion to clean energy." —Bill McKibben
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You've Got to Be Kidding...
This Week's Work of Art
| Check Out Http://Www.Leahwittenberg.Com/ For More Of Leah Wittenberg’s Cartoons. | |
Frequent Sources for Just In! briefs:
Green Energy Times
City & State First Read
POLITICO Weekly NY & NJ Energy email)
Canary Media
National Building Electrification Network & Sunstone Strategies
Just in! thanks NY-GEO board member John Ciovacco of Aztech Geothermal for his frequent proofreading contributions to this publication and Paul Maliszewski for his work on the briefs.
EVENTS:
*Indicates a New Listing or Updated Information
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*2024 04 16 – Earth Day Albany Advocacy Day (EDAD) - 9:30am - 4:00pm ET - Clean+Healthy - “Join Clean+Healthy and EDAD co-sponsors as we head to Albany to rally for a variety of environmental justice legislation, including Enhanced and Refundable Geothermal Tax Credits (S8106A/A8588A). We will have meetings with key state legislators to explain to them why environmental justice legislation is critical for the health of our communities. To advocate for S8106A/A8588A, choose the Clean Energy & Climate Justice advocacy track. Co-sponsoring organizations: WE ACT, Sierra Club, NRDC, NYLCV, CCE, Green Inside & Out, EANY, PFOAProject NY, Riverkeeper, Earthjustice, Alliance for Clean Energy NY, Alliance for a Green Economy, Renewable Heat Now, NY Sustainable Business Council, New Yorkers for Clean Power, Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester, Newburgh Clean Water Project, New, Standard Institute, Adirondack Council, Seneca Lake Guardian." Learn more here.
2024 04 17 – Geo Heat Pump Standards (then and now) – 3:00-4:00 pm ET - California Geo’s next “UNDERGROUND webinar will feature a pair of experienced geo practitioners to share their knowledge and experience. They’ll be covering the changes coming to geo heat pump rating standards; from the current ISO/AHRI 13256-1 to the future AHRI Standard 600. Lisa Meline and Bob Brown will explain this transition and show how it affects an engineer's project preparations.” Register here.
2024 04 18 – Clean Heat Program Stakeholders Meeting – 9:00-10:00 am ET - (Note: Previously scheduled for March 14) The NYS Clean Heat Utility Joint Management Committee (JMC) will host the next quarterly meeting of the Working Group Series for Participating Contractors and Industry Partners. This series is billed as an ongoing platform for contractors and industry partners affiliated with NYS Clean Heat to discuss program improvements and address questions related to the program. Registration link.
*2024 04 24 – Boost Your Comfort with HVAC Sales and Financing: – 2:00 pm ET – “In this workshop, Jacob Langford and Joshua Keniley will discuss what sales really is (and what it isn't), where financing fits into that conversation, and how to use a mix of techniques to tackle in-home selling — regardless of your job title…. Learn about the buyer's journey and how to make your customer the ‘hero’ in that journey.” Register here.
2024 05 28 to 30 – IGSHPA Research Conference - The International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) is pleased to announce that the next IGSHPA Research Conference will be held at Polytechnique Montréal. This is the fourth in a series of research conferences held in Denver (2017), Stockholm (2018), and Las Vegas (2022). Conference website here
*2024 10 21 to 23 – NY-GEO 2024 – Fall Conference – New York City – The New York Brooklyn Bridge Marriott will host a two-day conference with a day of local project site tours, over 40 educational sessions, and the NY-GEO Annual Dinner. This is NY-GEO's first conference Downstate and will emphasize content on how to address densely populated areas and large commercial buildings. To register for NYC and learn more about becoming a sponsor and or exhibitor click here.
NY-GEO Members can attend the conference at a discounted rate, so now is a good time to renew your membership through 2024.
NY-GEO members: to receive the discounted member rates, employees of your organization must be populated in the member database. Reach out to NY-GEO Executive Director Christine Hoffer at christine@ny-geo.org for assistance.
Not a Member? Click Here to Join!
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We NEED Your NY-GEO Member Job Postings – Please add any job openings you may have to our NY-GEO Job Listings to gain visibility and help recruit new employees to your organization. This feature is available to all NY-GEO members, simply log into your account, select the NY-GEO Job Listings in the left toolbar, select Add in the upper right, and complete the form. If you need assistance, let us know at christine@ny-geo.org.
The Building Performance Contractors Association (BPCA) Career Center is here.
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Ongoing – NYSERDA is hiring! The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has ongoing recruitment opportunities. All qualified individuals will be evaluated for each relevant position for which they apply. Check this page periodically to learn about new career opportunities. | |
Become an NY-GEO Member
NY GEO is the driving force in the mass adoption of Ground Source (Geothermal) Heat Pumps for residential, commercial, and utility-scale heating and cooling in New York State. NY-GEO's mission is to grow the geothermal heat pump industry and develop its workforce while educating policymakers building/property developers and residents about the benefits of geothermal heat pumps.
We are a member-funded, non-profit trade organization and we depend on YOUR SUPPORT to expand the use of clean, renewable, geothermal heating and cooling systems for the benefit
of all.
Learn more about the benefits of becoming an NY-GEO member and why your membership is important to advancing GHP, Click here.
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