Just In! for November 16, 2024

The weekly newsletter of the New York Geothermal Energy Organization (NY-GEO)

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.

Zero Place in New Paltz Wins US DOE Home Innovation Award – U.S. Department of Energy – Green Builder – “While the building envelope is impressive, the mechanicals are the real story.  Heating and hot water are provided by ground-source heat pumps... the builder dug the 15 wells straight down, 400 feet into the ground before starting the building… By digging the wells within the building’s footprint, no additional yard space was needed. Excavation costs were reduced because excavation was already planned there for the building’s footings and crawlspace. For space heating, each of the 46 apartments has its own unitary ground-source water-to-air heat pump; nine more heat pumps provide heating and cooling for the corridors and common areas.” Link.

RHN Makes it Easy to Submit a Comment on the NYS Energy Plan – NY State has started its (every 5-year) process of updating the State Energy Plan. Renewable Heat Now (RHN) has developed a series of 5 points that would strengthen the Plan in relation to decarbonizing buildings including “upgrading heating and cooling by replacing furnaces and boilers with air-source or ground-source heat pumps and thermal energy networks, prioritizing the highest efficiency systems.” RHN has created an easy form for submitting a note including these points or modifying as you see fit. Fossil fuel interests will be trying to weaken the plan and comments in favor of strengthening the plan can play a key role at this inflection point. Link.

NY Court Rescinds PSC Approval of Fracked Gas Power Plant – Nydia Gutiérrez - Earthjustice – “Today, the Supreme Court of Albany County vacated a decision to approve the transfer of ownership of Fortistar North Tonawanda, a 55-megawatt fracked gas power plant, to Digihost International, which uses the plant to power its cryptocurrency mining operation on site. The Court ordered the NYS-Public Service Commission (PSC) to analyze the transfer under New York’s Climate Law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). The court faulted the agency’s failure to follow CLCPA Section 7(2) which requires New York State agencies to consider whether agency decisions are inconsistent with or interfere with the statewide greenhouse gas emission limits set by the law, and to mitigate the damage from decisions that result in greenhouse gas emissions.” Link.

Digihost/Fortistar power plant

$20 Million Available for Resiliency Repairs and Upgrades – Urban CNY News - “Governor Kathy Hochul today announced up to $20 million is available for eligible homeowners in flood prone areas to make proactive flood mitigation and energy-efficiency improvements to their homes as part of a new round of funding for the Resilient Retrofits Program. This latest round of funding builds upon the program’s initial $10 million allocation as part of a pilot phase in 2023.” Link.

More on Air Source Heat Pump Performance During Winter Peak Demand Events - Last week we ran a brief on the NREL Field Study of Air Source Heat Pumps for Cold Climates in which we pointed out that “during grid peak demand events the systems would likely be using electric resistance heat with a maximum COP of 1.0”. Just to clarify, during peak demand events air source systems produce a combination of some heat from the heat pump compressor and some from the auxiliary electric resistance heater. The systems in the NREL study averaged a COP (Coefficient of Performance) of 2.05, and certainly during a cold peak demand day the COP would be significantly lower. The actual system COP is then a proportional combination of the significantly lower COP (but still greater than 1.00) from the compressor and the COP of 1.00 coming from the resistance heater. As we noted in our November 2^nd brief on a NYISO/Electric Power Research Institute study, they estimated a combined COP of 1.12 at 3° F in an Albany, NY home. NREL study link.

NY Court Upholds DEC's Authority to Enforce Climate Law – readMedia - In Yates County, NY on November 14, 2024, “… a New York State Supreme Court judge confirmed that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has the authority to deny permits and permit renewals for greenhouse gas-emitting, fossil-fueled operations, like the Finger Lakes based Greenidge cryptomine, that violate New York's climate law (the CLCPA). The Court also affirmed DEC's finding that Greenidge's emissions were inconsistent with the CLCPA… The judge nonetheless gave Greenidge the opportunity to return back to the lower administrative court to provide more evidence for whether its continued operation is justified notwithstanding that inconsistency under the CLCPA.” Link.

Six Climate and Environment Takeaways from the Election – Jason Mark – Sierra Club Magazine – “To the great frustration of many environmental advocates, climate change and the environment weren’t really on the ballot this year. Compared with other hot-button issues like the economy, women’s rights, and democracy, environmental concerns fell pretty low on most voters’ lists of concerns. But even if the environment wasn’t on the ballot, the environment will likely be a casualty of the election. Unless, that is, the environmental movement and our allies can frustrate the Trump regime—just as we did during the first Trump administration. Here are six things to keep in mind during the weeks, months, and—sorry to say—years ahead.”  Link.

A Pound of Prevention Is Worth a Ton+ of Cure -- New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management recently partnered with Climate Smart Woodbury to host a Coolest Recycling Drive. The drive collected 59 refrigerant-containing appliances, including air conditioners, dehumidifiers and refrigerators. The appliances originally contained 38 pounds of various refrigerants, and it's estimated that by preventing those chemicals from being vented, the equivalent of 66 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions were avoided. For this project, each pound of refrigerant emission prevention is estimated to result in 1.7 metric tons of cure. State Senator Brian Kavanagh and Assembly Member Amy Paulin have proposed legislation (S6105B/A10624) that would require manufacturers to develop extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs for refrigerants and appliances. Link. 

As New York Congestion Pricing Turns a Corner: Lessons from London - Kiley Price – Inside Climate News - “Though New York’s approach is the first of its kind in the nation, it’s not the first in the world. Across the Atlantic, London has been running a congestion pricing program for more than two decades, which experts say can help other cities like New York understand what these fees can achieve—and what they cannot.”  Link.

Mexico Restructures the Electricity Sector – Hernán González Estrada, Carlos Campuzano and Raquel Bierzwinsky - Norton Rose Fulbright – “The new Mexican government is moving rapidly to put its imprint on the renewable energy sector… Both Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the national oil and gas company, and the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), the national electric utility, were converted from state-owned companies to fully competitive “productive state enterprises” after the last major energy reforms in 2013. The new reform reverts these entities to public companies under the full supervision and budget of the Mexican government, tasked with complying with public policies, including guaranteeing energy sovereignty and national security.” Link.

Electrifying Rail and Adding Transmission – Bill Moyer – Solutionary Rail – “In 2016, I co-authored the book Solutionary Rail: A people-powered campaign to electrify America’s railroads and open corridors to a clean energy future. Our book proposed that Berkshire Hathaway (BH) enter a public-private partnership with state and federal governments to electrify the Northern and Southern transcontinental corridors of its BNSF railroad. We proposed that along with rail electrification, the partnership co-locate high voltage transmission along its right of way.” Thanks to author Bill McKibben for this fascinating tip. Link.

"Painting by J. Craig Thorpe for our 2016 book. This image depicts a number of elements of the Solutionary Rail vision including catenary electrification, transmission, double tracking to accommodate preferencing passenger trains, and more. Today, buried HVDC could replace some of the overhead transmission."

The U.S. lags far behind most of the developed world in electrification of its train lines.

NY-GEO Conference Highlights

Eversource's Networked Geothermal Pilot: Lessons Learned

**Presented on October 22, 2024, at NY-GEO 2024 in Brooklyn, NY**

Joel Rayburg and Eric Bosworth from Eversource provided highly anticipated updates on customer acquisition, communication strategies, and system construction through the late stages of the commissioning progress. The Eversource Networked Geothermal Pilot is routed through a neighborhood in Framingham, Massachusetts consisting of 36 buildings – 24 residential and five commercial – for a total of 125 customer accounts. Three main components of the system have been installed in parallel, drilling the geothermal borefields, installing the utility mains and service lines connecting customers' buildings and the conversion to geothermal heat pumps in each building.

Speakers:

• Eric Bosworth / Eversource Energy
• Joel Rayberg / Eversource Energy

Session YouTube Recording

Download Presentation Deck

Joel Rayberg (right) and Eric Bosworth (left) of Eversource review their Framingham Pilot at the NY-GEO 2024 Conference in Brooklyn

Climate Updates:

"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

Climate TRACE: Amazing Resource Pinpoints Both Global and Local Climate Pollution – HEATMAP AM – “Climate TRACE, the research coalition co-founded by Al Gore, released a report today (2024 11 14) that provides incredibly detailed greenhouse gas emissions data for geographic regions. The report reveals emissions from every country, but goes further to measure state, province, and county emissions, too.” With computer skills that often result in frustration when searching new sites, I was able to quickly find data for Buffalo, NY, mainly by just clicking on a map. Link.

Buffalo's summary emission data at Climate TRACE website

NY Farmers Dealing with Drought and Brushfires – Frida Garza - Grist – Frida Garza - Grist – “ ‘I’ve been farming for almost 50 years, and there’s no normal,’ said Guy Jones, who runs Blooming Hill Farms with his three sons in Orange County. These days, he said, ‘it either rains like a motherf***er, or it’s dry as hell. Pardon my French.’ He added: ‘The trend isn’t necessarily solely dry or wet. It’s just extreme.’ ”  Link.

Taliban to Attend Climate Summit – Associated Press – “The Taliban will attend a U.N. climate conference for the first time since their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021…, the country’s national environment agency said Sunday…The National Environmental Protection Agency posted on social media platform X that a technical delegation had gone to Baku (Azerbaijan) to participate.” It has been reported that “25 of its 34 provinces face severe or catastrophic drought conditions, affecting more than half the population. Afghanistan also had the highest number of children made homeless by climate disasters of any country as of the end of 2023”, Link.

Extreme Weather, Extreme Content: How Big Tech Enables Climate Disinformation in a World on the Brink – Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAA) – “Big Oil and Big Tech are facilitating an ongoing reframing of extreme weather events, as well as ready solutions to the crisis, turning them into fodder for opposition to climate action. Despite having years to clean up their platforms, Big Tech continues to allow a small number of ‘super-spreaders’ to pollute their platforms with debunked claims attacking renewable energy and electric vehicles… Increasingly, renewable energies are also framed as a tool for social control.” Link.

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 weekly proofreading contributions to this publication and Paul Maliszewski for his work on the briefs.

EVENTS:

*Indicates a New Listing or Updated Information

2024 11 17 – Healthy Homes Right to Know Act – 6:00 pm ET – “Gas stoves contribute to many health hazards that the public is largely unaware of. A new bill in New York State (The Healthy Homes Right to Know Act) seeks to make sure the public is informed of these dangers. Join an amazing panel. Learn about the health risks, the legislation and what you can do to make New York a healthier place to live.” Attend with this link. 

*2024 11 19 – Marketing Electrification to Moderate Income Homeowners – 3:00 pm ET – Energy Circle - “The Inflation Reduction Act makes moderate income households more appealing than ever to energy efficiency and home electrification-focused contractors, with rebate programs sweetened for this ‘forgotten middle’. Moderate income is… estimated by the Department of Energy to be 70% of the homes in the US. But if you don’t already spend much time thinking about how to reach this type of customer, where do you start?” Register here.

*2024 11 20 – IRA: Everything to Know Going into 2025 – 5:00 pm ET – “Energy Circle Founder & CEO Peter Troast will review everything that’s happened so far with IRA rebate rollouts in 2024 and what to expect in 2025. We’ll look at what lessons can be learned from early adopter states and how you can use rebate marketing to differentiate your business and gain first mover advantage in your service area.” Register here.

*2024 11 21 – Renewable Heat Now November Power Hour– 7:00 pm ET - “Join the November ‘Power Hour’, our monthly grassroots meeting to get all the information on our advocacy for the rest of 2024 and our plans to win the NY HEAT Act and other policy priorities in 2025.” Register here.

*2024 11 22 – IGSHPA Dig Deeper - Lessons Learned: The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Tax Incentives 1-year later – 11:30 am ET – Jacob Goldman, Vice President of Energy Tax Savers – “Projects have started to apply for Inflation Reduction Act Tax (IRA) tax incentives. Most of the guidance has been released. This presentation will delve into the guidance and highlight successes and failures along the way. Topics covered will include, the Investment Tax Credit, Elective Pay, Transferability, Section 179D, Depreciation, EV charging stations credits as well as Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship.” Register here.

2024 12 03 – NY Technical Resource Manual Webinar - 10 am to 12 pm ET – “Learn more about the New York Technical Resource Manual (TRM) by attending the TRM Management Committee's stakeholder webinar series. The primary purpose of the TRM is to provide a standardized, accurate, fair, and transparent approach for estimating gross savings; these savings calculations serve as the basis for energy measure incentives throughout the state. The webinar will seek to engage stakeholders including (but not limited to) vendors, manufacturers, trade groups, and other market participants.” Register here.

2024 12 03 – Energy Equity in Home Electrification and Decarbonization - 2 pm ET - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – “Achieving energy equity in the decarbonization of existing residential buildings is essential to ensure that all communities and households can benefit from a cleaner and more energy-efficient environment, and that we achieve our climate-related goals for the building sector. However, advancing equitable outcomes in this energy transition presents significant challenges. This presentation explores barriers in retrofitting existing buildings to meet decarbonization goals, with a focus on underserved communities that often lack resources for energy-efficient upgrades.” Register here.

*2024 12 04 - Buyers Guide to Geothermal Heat Pumps – 3:00 pm ET - California Geo Underground Webinar – “Geothermal heat pump veterans Kent Penning and Graham Johnson will cover common questions asked by homeowners and feature new analysis by IGSHPA’s Jeff Hammond (on) cold climate air-source heat pumps.” Free register here.

2024 12 05 – NYS LMI Portfolio Stakeholder Session – 1:00 to 3:00 pm ET – “Please take notice that NYSERDA and the New York Utilities will host a stakeholder session to discuss the Statewide Low-to Moderate-Income (LMI) Portfolio, including an update on progress to date and planning for the 2025 program year, including transitions.” Register here.

2024 12 12 – Distributed Actions across NY State Re NY HEAT – Renewable Heat Now is in the process of organizing actions across the state to call on Governor Hochul to put NY HEAT in her budget that will be introduced in January. Contact lisa@nyforcleanpower.org for more information.

2025 02 10 to 12 – Building Performance Contractors Conference – “We are excited to be planning the upcoming BPCA Conference: Elevating Building Performance. As part of the event planning, we are seeking experts and leaders in the field to host engaging and informative sessions. If you're interested in contributing as a session host, please fill out the form via this link."

2025 03 11 to 13 – 2025 IGSHPA Annual Conference – Breaking New Ground– From the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA): “Join us in Champaign, IL next March for our 2025 Annual Conference in collaboration with the Geothermal Alliance of Illinois!  Don't miss out on early bird pricing, and as always, if you are a GAOI or IGSHPA member you get to register at a discount!” Conference website here.

2025 04 22 to 24 – NY-GEO 2025 in Saratoga Springs – This Upstate event will be our only/sole NY-GEO conference in 2025. For 2026 the NY-GEO conference is planned to be located Downstate – NYC area. The April 2025 NY-GEO events in Saratoga will include Pre-Conference Geothermal Drilling Demonstrations & GSHP Site Tours followed by 2 Days of Conference Education Sessions, co-located with a great Vendor Exhibition Hall. Check the NY-GEO 2025 Saratoga Springs page for information as it becomes available. 

JOBS !                                                                    

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. 

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 a 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 a NY-GEO member and why your membership is important to advancing GHP, Click here.