The TCCPI Newsletter
Issue #70: May-June 2022
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Greetings!
Welcome to the May-June 2022 issue of the TCCPI Newsletter, an e-update from the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative ( TCCPI). |
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TCCPI is a multisector collaboration seeking to leverage the climate action commitments made by Cornell University, Ithaca College, Tompkins Cortland Community College, Tompkins County, the City of Ithaca, and the Town of Ithaca to mobilize a countywide energy efficiency effort and accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. Launched in June 2008 and generously supported by the Park Foundation, TCCPI is a project of the Sustainable Markets Foundation.
We are committed to helping Tompkins County achieve a dynamic economy, healthy environment, and resilient community through a focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy.
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Cornell Begins to Drill 2-Mile Borehole for Geothermal Project
by David Nutt, Cornell Chronicle, 6/21/22
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The Cornell University Borehole Observatory. Photo by Jason Koski/Cornell University. |
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Cornell is one step closer to determining the feasibility of using deep geothermal energy to heat the Ithaca campus.
Drilling for the Cornell University Borehole Observatory (CUBO) began June 21 and is expected to last about two months. The borehole, located on a Cornell-owned gravel parking lot near Palm Road, will be subjected to a battery of tests, both during and after the drilling, to determine the temperature, permeability, and other characteristics of the rock up to 10,000 feet below the earth’s surface.
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These findings will help the university determine whether to move forward with a proposed plan to warm the Ithaca campus with Earth Source Heat (ESH), a process that would extract naturally heated water after it’s pumped underground, transfer its heat to a separate supply of water flowing within the campus’ heating distribution pipeline, and return the original water to the subsurface, where it warms back up and begins the cycle again.
Such a system would enable the university to meet its goal of carbon neutrality by 2035, while providing a blueprint for similar renewable energy efforts throughout the northeast and other parts of the U.S. where geothermal heat has not previously been utilized.
“This well will provide scientific information, but it will not be a production well,” said Jeff Tester, the David Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow and professor in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and principal investigator for the project. “This information will tell us a lot about the characteristics of the rock in a range where those temperatures could be useful for geothermal heat production, and will help us design and build an actual energy extraction process in the next phase.”
An energy project of this scale has not been attempted at Cornell since the implementation of Lake Source Cooling 22 years ago, Tester said. That five-year effort was one of the most significant sustainability initiatives undertaken by an American university.
The official start of CUBO construction comes a decade and a half after the idea emerged when the university was putting together its Climate Action Plan, which was adopted in 2009. The borehole drilling is being overseen by Facilities and Campus Services in collaboration with university faculty, staff from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and experienced geothermal consultants.
Most expansion of U.S. geothermal energy has been to generate electricity in locations where plate tectonic or volcanic conditions generate high temperature rocks at a shallow depth, like in California, Nevada, and Idaho.
The Cornell team realized that by integrating centralized heat pumps they could make an ESH system function at cooler temperatures, around 70 degrees Celsius, or approximately 160 degrees Fahrenheit, and still be effective.
A $7.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy announced in August 2020 effectively establishes Cornell as a national demonstration site for Earth Source Heat. By that point, university researchers had already been brainstorming ways to gain as much knowledge as they can from a dedicated exploration and monitoring borehole like CUBO.
While drilling, the researchers will use geophysical instruments to measure rock properties and identify fractures and stress conditions. They’ll collect rock cuttings throughout the borehole, and rock cores in short intervals. Once the hole is completely drilled to a depth of 10,000 feet, a small amount of water will also be pumped through the system to locate permeable zones. After drilling and testing are completed, a fiber optic cable will be installed in the borehole to allow temperature measurements across those deepest rock layers and long-term monitoring.
To reduce the risk of unwanted side effects and to monitor environmental conditions, five water-monitoring wells were installed around the CUBO site and seismometers were placed around the county. Water quality and seismic activity during drilling are being tracked and early alert warning systems are in place.
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Next TCCPI Meeting
Friday, July 29, 2022
9 to 11 am
Due to the current pandemic, the monthly TCCPI meetings have moved online. Contact Peter Bardaglio, the TCCPI coordinator, for further details at pbardaglio@gmail.com.
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Local Community Leaders Urge NYS Climate Action on Buildings
by Jimmy Jordan, Ithaca Voice, 5/20/22
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Local leaders, elected officials, and concerned citizens gathered on May 19 to urge New York State’s government to pass a slate of policies to address carbon emissions associated with the state’s existing building stock and new construction.
Buildings are a big slice of the pie when it comes to carbon sources. Daily operations like heating, cooling, cooking as well as the construction of buildings together account for an estimated 40% of global emissions.
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Rally for climate action on buildings. Photo by Casey Martin/Ithaca Voice.
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Addressing these sources of carbon is complicated. It involves the interests of individual building and homeowners, municipal code enforcement, as well as issues of equity.
Despite these challenges, Assemblymember Dr. Anna Kelles (D-125) called the slate of bills “low hanging fruit” for the state if it wants to take action on climate change and follow through on the commitment of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York’s overarching climate and clean energy law which sets the aggressive goal of phasing out gas from new buildings by 2024, and achieving carbon neutral electricity generation by 2040.
The slate of bills being advocated for are the All-Electric Buildings Act; the Advanced Building Codes, Appliances, and Equipment Efficiency Standards Act; and the Gas Transition and Affordable Energy Act. Passage of the legislative package has been a top priority for the statewide coalition Renewable Heat Now, and they cover issues the Ithaca Green New Deal has strived to address.
Among the changes that these bills would bring to New York State law are requiring all new buildings to make space and water heating all-electric and end the permitting for new buildings that rely on fossil fuel systems to perform those functions by 2027; allowing the NYS codes council to change building codes to include greenhouse gas emissions and update appliance efficiency standards; and require the Public Service Commission, the state regulatory agency that oversees utility companies, to develop an plan to ensure equitability for low income residents in the transition from gas to electric-sourced services. This plan would have to be implemented by utilities.
“Buildings are not disposable. Buildings are around for 50 or 100 years,” said Kelles on Thursday. “You build a building from scratch that has natural gas infrastructure, that is creating a dependency on natural gas infrastructure for the next 50 to 100 years.”
“The number one source of greenhouse gas emissions in New York is the energy we use for heating our homes and commercial buildings. Number one by far. And so we cannot reach the climate targets of the climate laws without decreasing our use of energy, for home heating,” said Dr. Robert Howarth, a Climate Action Council member and researcher at Cornell University known for his pioneering work quantifying methane’s impact on climate change.
Editors Note: Of the three bills mentioned above, the only one to pass was the the Advanced Building Codes, Appliances, and Equipment Efficiency Standards Act. Plans are already underway to push for passage of the other two at the next regular legislative session, which begins this January.
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New Roots Charter School Pilots "Roots of Success" Program
by Jessica Wickham, Tompkins Weekly, 5/4/22
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New Roots students and teachers at wetlands restoration site in Cayuga Inlet. Photo courtesy of New Roots Charter School. |
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Juniors and seniors at New Roots Charter School in Ithaca piloted Roots of Success, the city’s green workforce development program, this spring. Participating students will receive Environmental Literacy certification from the U.S. Department of Labor, which, according to the school, “will be recognized by local employers benefitting from the city of Ithaca’s electrification initiative.”
New Roots founder and Superintendent Tina Nilsen-Hodges said " Roots of Success" was created by Dr. Raquel Pinderhughes, professor of urban studies and planning at San Francisco State University. |
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“The curriculum is informed by Raquel’s decades of experience working with and teaching underserved populations and in-depth research with employers in 21 sectors of the green economy,” Nilsen-Hodges said in an email. “What the two organizations do have in common is that they were both founded in 2009, and both founders were finalists for a Best of Green Schools Award in 2021 for their organization’s contributions to the Green Schools movement!”
Michael Mazza, director of community engagement at New Roots, added that the City of Ithaca has brought on Pinderhughes as a paid consultant for a year to “support a successful launch of the program citywide.”
“Lisa Marshall, program director of HeatSmart Tompkins, has also been trained to teach New Roots students the Roots of Success curriculum,” he said in an email. “All is made possible through the generous funding support from the Park Foundation.”
As Nilsen-Hodges explained, Roots of Success is a response to the need for living-wage jobs and career pathways in poverty-stricken areas and meant as a way to promote sustainable development. “They do this by strengthening core academic skills, increasing people’s understanding of environmental problems and solutions, preparing them for jobs and career pathways in multiple sectors of the economy and to improve conditions in their communities,” she said. “Their focus is on student success, making learning relevant, building on prior experiences and connecting education to employment.”
The green economy is one of the fastest growing economic sectors, Nilsen-Hodges noted, providing workers, even in entry-level jobs, with “higher wages, better benefits and greater occupational mobility than entry-level jobs in other sectors.” The Roots of Success model is used by high schools, youth programs, colleges and job training programs throughout the country.
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Take a step to save money and energy! |
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One Last Thing: Growth & Progress in the Ithaca 2030 District |
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The Ithaca 2030 District recently released its third annual progress report. As the report shows, the Ithaca 2030 District in 2021 once again surpassed the 2020 reduction target for energy and, for the first time, went beyond the 2030 target for water.
Buildings make up 73% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the City of Ithaca, with commercial buildings accounting for 48 percent, so achieving the city-wide goal of carbon neutrality by 2030 depends in great measure on dramatically reducing the carbon footprint of our buildings.
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The flagship program of TCCPI, the Ithaca 2030 District is a voluntary effort by property owners and tenants to improve the energy and water performance of their buildings as well as to bring about cuts in commuter transportation emissions.
District property members, by committing to the goals of the 2030 District, are not only having a positive effect on the environment; they are also saving money on utility costs, improving the well-being of those who live and work in their buildings, and stimulating the local economy.
The Ithaca 2030 District has grown considerably in the last 16 months, due in part to the reopening of downtown as well as the excitement generated by the City’s building decarbonization campaign.
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Currently, there are 30 commercial property owners, 40 buildings, and 522,375 square feet of committed space, compared to 25 property members, 29 buildings, and 375,371 square feet at the end of 2020. This annual report focused on the 27 property members, 33 buildings, and 417,089 square feet that belonged to the District for most of 2021.
The District reduced its energy consumption by 21.8% from the baseline. In addition, it realized savings of 51.4% in water use. The one area where the District lost ground was commuter transportation emissions. The increase in driving to work in 2021 as downtown reopened, along with a decline in the number of remote workers, resulted in a rise in transportation emissions to a level well above the 2020 target, even exceeding the level of emissions generated before the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Clearly, commuter emissions will be a major area of concern as the City of Ithaca works to achieve its goal of community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030.
Besides the annual district-level report, each of the property members is provided access to a confidential interactive, online dashboard that measures the energy and water performance of their individual buildings. These dashboards are regularly updated so that building owners and tenants can monitor their progress towards the individual 2025 and 2030 energy and water targets.
Check out the full 2021 report for details about the growth and progress of the Ithaca 2030 District.
Peter Bardaglio
TCCPI Coordinator
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Be sure to visit the website for TCCPI's latest project, the Ithaca 2030 District, an interdisciplinary public-private collaboration working to create a groundbreaking high-performance building district in Downtown Ithaca. |
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309 N. Aurora St.,
Ithaca, NY 14850
207-229-6183
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