Latest news with #SueDougherty
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New York offering up to $750K for facility decarbonization projects
This story was originally published on Facilities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Facilities Dive newsletter. New York state is offering up to $750,000 in state cost-sharing funding for building and campus decarbonization efforts that use ground-source heat pumps, waste heat recovery, thermal energy storage and other low-emissions technologies. Applications are due July 31. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority's Large-Scale Thermal program encourages property owners to pursue high-efficiency, 'grid-friendly' electrification projects, NYSERDA Program Manager Sue Dougherty said in a presentation at the International District Energy Association annual conference earlier this month. The $10 million program is open to systems that provide heating, cooling and hot water to single buildings with at least 100,000 square feet of conditioned space or multibuilding campuses with at least 250,000 conditioned square feet, NYSERDA says. State funding opportunities like the Large-Scale Thermal program are key to New York's efforts to significantly reduce the environmental impact of its roughly 6 million buildings in the coming decades, Dougherty said. The state wants 85% of its buildings to use clean heating technologies like heat pumps and thermal energy networks by 2050, the same year its statutory net-zero statewide GHG emissions target kicks in. 'We're not going to do all *6 million buildings, and we really don't have to,' Dougherty said. 'But we will need to do a significant number, and our solutions will need to address existing, older buildings and newer buildings getting built [today].' The Large-Scale Thermal program is accepting applications for its third funding round through July. Successful applicants will receive state funding equal to 50% of total project design costs, with maximum funding up to $300,000 for new construction and $750,000 for existing buildings. The project economics tend to work best for existing facilities with aging heating and cooling infrastructure, new construction and larger buildings or campuses that can achieve 'economies of scale,' Dougherty said. The program considers a wide range of high-efficiency, low-emissions heating and cooling technologies, Dougherty said. These include, but are not limited to, heat pumps that tap into ground, air and surface water resources; building and wastewater heat recovery systems; solar thermal systems; and thermal energy storage systems. 'We are looking for opportunities to help [building owners] accomplish a goal, not prescribing how it's done,' she said. NYSERDA is particularly interested in 'grid-friendly' projects that can shift electric loads away from periods of peak demand by participating in utility demand response programs or using on-site thermal energy storage, Dougherty added. 'We are hoping we can continue to increase the growth of thermal storage and other solutions that can take strain off the grid,' she said. This latest effort complements prior state-led initiatives to decarbonize facilities, campuses and neighborhoods. Beginning in 2021, for example, the Community Heat Pump Systems program funded feasibility studies, design phases or construction for thermal energy networks at more than 50 sites across New York. Dougherty called out several in her presentation, including a ground-source heat pump system at a pair of new residential towers in Brooklyn, a feasibility study to replace a district steam loop with an ambient-temperature water loop and wastewater heat recovery system at an 18-building housing cooperative in the Bronx, and a feasibility study to swap a gas-fired steam system and distributed air-cooled chillers for a lower-temperature water loop on part of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station's campus. The New York City projects' space-constrained sites made them useful references for property owners or developers considering thermal energy systems in similarly dense urban environments, Dougherty said. The Brooklyn project is an excellent reference for geothermal borefield design on tight construction sites, she said. A NYSERDA project narrative indicates the Bronx proposal would boost system efficiency by tapping complementary heating and cooling loads from a nearby nursing home, community center and mixed-use commercial building. The Cornell University project shows facility decarbonization doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing endeavor, Dougherty said. The project area will initially retain a gas-fired boiler for peak heating season, in part because the network will serve a research greenhouse that needs to maintain a constant year-round temperature, she said. 'We understand that this is a transition,' Dougherty said. 'We don't expect projects to come to us and tell us they're going to electrify everything tomorrow.' Recommended Reading UAlbany decarbonization project to cut fossil fuel consumption 16% Sign in to access your portfolio
CBS News
23-06-2025
- Climate
- CBS News
Power restored to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, senior apartments following 4-day outage
Power was restored just after 3 p.m. Monday at Newtown Towers, an apartment complex in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, after residents spent more than three days in sweltering conditions following last week's storm. The outage left dozens of older adults — many on fixed incomes and with mobility issues — without air conditioning, elevators or refrigeration as a heat wave gripped the region. "I had to clean out my refrigerator," 76-year-old Sue Dougherty said. "Thank God my daughter took a lot of my freezer stuff. But I had to throw out chicken and hot dogs." Dougherty has been staying with family, but returned Monday to check on her cat, Rita. "I just called the vet," she said. "And he said, 'Bring her up.'" Other residents without nearby family found their own ways to stay cool. Blanche Aboyan, 71, spent time in her parked car with the air conditioning running. "I have the air conditioner on in my car and it's feeling great and I'm starting to wake up," Aboyan said. She watched as utility crews worked for hours in the heat, clearing tree branches tangled in power lines. "I don't wish to be them," she said. Some residents were taken to the hospital during the outage, according to neighbors. "Several of the neighbors have been taken by the emergency vehicles because of the heat," resident Bob McDonald said. "But we're very aggressive and proactive in taking care of our neighbors." Without a working elevator, residents said they were largely confined to their apartments. "A lot of people move here because of the elevator," Dougherty said. "But in an emergency like this, there's no elevator." Despite the hardship, many said the experience brought them closer together. "In an emergency like this, we all try to help each other — give each other water. Whatever we can do," Dougherty said. "We have a lot of camaraderie here."
