When it comes to adopting New York State’s ambitious energy goals paid for by state money, the City of Kingston is not without ambition. Last week, the state’s energy research and development agency, Nyserda, awarded the city a grant of $1.8 million for energy efficiency upgrades at the Kingston City Hall and the nearby Andy Murphy Neighborhood Center, according to the city government’s grants management office. Kingston’s successful grant application described the two buildings as a Midtown clean-energy hub which would showcase solar systems, heat pumps and a thermal energy network. The buildings, which need “envelope upgrades” and new heat systems, will be converted to run entirely on electricity. Ground wells and heat pumps could produce surplus energy.
“Kingston is eager to adapt to the future envisioned by the Climate Act,” a Nyserda press release explained, “and become a leader in clean energy, building off the success of previously completed energy efficiency projects, including upgraded lights, installation of a solar system and window inserts, and reducing electricity and gas usage.”
The energy hub would bring more solar power and vehicle charging on-site, and add stormwater and thermal infrastructure for the community. The hub’s surplus energy could become an energy reservoir. That possibility could launch extensive new opportunities for the city to share its surplus with its neighbors – for a price.
“This is the start of Kingston’s Thermal Energy Network (TEN), owned by the city, anchored by this project, and with potential to connect to the hospital, high school, and other buildings in the area,” said the Nyserda release.
“Safe and reliable electric power through solar, wind, and other renewables, combined with energy storage, will help end consumer vulnerability to fossil-fuel disruptions and price volatility,” said Sarah Osgood, executive director of the New York State Climate Action Council.
The grant to Kingston is part of a $ 12-million package Nyserda announced last week. Poughkeepsie and Tannersville are among the nine other recipients.
The funds in Poughkeepsie will help pay for the transformation of a former manufacturing plant into office space for the environmental non-profit Scenic Hudson and spaces for local business meetings and community events. The project will achieve carbon neutrality through minimizing energy loads, by hyper energy-efficient, all-electric air-source heat pumps, and by energy production via photovoltaic systems.
The Catskill Mountain Foundation in Tannersville has been creating an extensive arts and cultural center in the small Greene County hamlet, funded in large part by a $10-million state grant. The new Nyserda grant will pay for energy-saving improvements in a recently built state-of-the-art five-thousand-square-foot building housing a dance studio.
Locally produced energy, a reality in the nineteenth century, is making a big comeback in the twenty-first century.
Photography center grant
It must be Christmastime. In other news, Kingston found out on Tuesday morning that a new state program, the Restore New York Communities Initiative, announced $102 million ”to reimagine downtowns across our state and transform vacant, blighted, and underutilized buildings into vibrant community anchors.”
As part of that program, Kingston received $1.5 million to “adaptively reuse and rehabilitate a 40,000-square-foot former cigar factory to allow the organization [Center for Photography at Woodstock] to relocate from a much smaller space in order to expand its growing arts and cultural programs in midtown Kingston, a thriving creative arts area.”
The building at 25 Dederick Street was previously owned by M&E Manufacturing, which moved to the Town of Ulster.
“Restore NY invigorates our urban centers and is a vital tool in the economic development tool kit for rebuilding communities that need it most,” said Empire State Development CEO Hope Knight. “This funding will help local governments find solutions to blighted buildings so they can move forward towards a more vibrant future.”
In its ambitious fundraising efforts, the 45-year-old soon-to-be-renamed Center for Photography at Woodstock had counted on a big state grant. The funding came through on December 20.
The organization’s email is working and the phone VM has now been cleared and is ready to accept messages.
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