Decarbonizing New York State’s most polluting facilities is an important priority for the New York League of Conservation Voters, and last week we had a big win in that category.
The University at Albany announced a $30 million building decarbonization project using thermal energy networks (TENs), a system that uses a network of pipes to deliver heating and cooling to multiple buildings.
The Upgrade NY Coalition, of which NYLCV is a leading member, helped secure funding for this project with New York officials in last year’s budget negotiations, and now it’s coming to fruition.
“Universities must lead not only by expanding our scientific understanding of climate change, but also by taking concrete steps to mitigate it. I am proud that UAlbany is committed to both,” UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez said. “This decarbonization project is a major step in reducing our campus greenhouse gas emissions and embodies our resolve to lead on climate by example.”
NYLCV President Julie Tighe applauded the project.
“Decarbonizing just 15 of New York’s most polluting facilities and campuses would reduce on-site combustion of fossil fuels from state-owned buildings overall by 40 percent,” Tighe said.
As we continue to advocate with the Upgrade NY coalition, we hope this U-Albany announcement is a harbinger of good things to come in the building decarbonization area.
Upgrade NY has asked Governor Hochul to allocate $200 million of a proposed $1 billion allocation in the 2025-26 budget for mitigation projects for decarbonization at SUNY campuses across the state. The requests include $50 million for SUNY Purchase, $68 million for the University of Buffalo, $5 million for Stony Brook University, $3 million for SUNY headquarters, and $55 million for the University at Albany downtown campus. (An additional $19 million was requested for the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities.)
Multi-building, single-owner campuses are prime candidates for TENS, which can provide cost-effective, reliable heating and cooling at neighborhood scale without adding strain to the electric grid during times of peak demand.
As the U-Albany project was being announced, geothermal test drilling was already underway in a school parking lot. The project will replace two gas-fired absorption chillers in the university’s 1960s-era central power plant in the uptown campus with a high-efficiency centrifugal chiller and heat recovery chiller connected to new geothermal wells in the parking lot. The parking lot well field will include between 90 and 135 wells dug as deep as 800 feet. When the project is completed, it is expected to reduce the school’s annual natural gas usage by 16 percent.
This project comes on the heels of another U-Albany energy-conservation project, the construction of the university’s $180 million state-of-the-art ETEC building, housing multi-disciplinary science and technology departments in its 2460,000 square feet.
“ETEC aligns with SUNY’s goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions and has received LEED Platinum certification, the highest level awarded by the Green Business Certification Inc. for energy-efficient and sustainable buildings,” U-Albany states on its website. “A geothermal field of 190 wells and solar panels on the Uptown Campus Podium combine to save about 70 percent in energy costs, efficient fixtures reduce water usage by 40 percent, and the site includes green stormwater management including a porous parking lot and a teaching green roof.”
Also, in July 2024, Gov. Hochul announced her intention to allocate $100 million for phase one of a plan to decarbonize Empire State Plaza in Albany. This phase one would allow for the electrification of the heating and cooling systems and result in an approximate 20 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Empire State Plaza consists of 14 main buildings and comprises 12 million square feet of government office space, event space and public space.
Buildings are the largest contributors of planet warming emissions in New York, so if we are going to tackle the climate crisis and meet our CLCPA obligations, there’s no better place to start than decarbonizing the state’s largest facilities.
“That would be a major achievement unto itself, but it would also spur a ton of innovation and private sector momentum towards investing in thermal energy networks and other innovative green technology while creating local union jobs,” said Tighe. “Tapping clean energy from underground through thermal energy networks and shuttering fossil-fuel powered chillers and boilers that pollute our air and contribute to climate change: this is what our clean energy future looks like.”
Peter Aronson, a volunteer writer at the New York League of Conservation Voters since September 2022, is a former journalist and retired attorney. He is the author of Mandalay Hawk’s Dilemma: The United States of Anthropocene, a novel for middle-grade readers about kids fighting global warming. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, wrote: “A scathing work and an essential blueprint for youth battling climate change.” To read more about Peter, visit his website www.peteraronsonbooks.com or to purchase his book, click here.