ALBANY – Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that $7.8 million is available through the Low Carbon Pathways for Multifamily Buildings program for owners or managers of multifamily buildings to implement low carbon solutions as part of planned upgrades. This incentive supports Governor Cuomo’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by 2050 as outlined in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
“This funding will support building owners by allowing them to decarbonize buildings and improve energy performance, helping to advance large-scale transformation of the State’s building stock and significantly reduce emissions and combat climate change,” Governor Cuomo said. “Along with planning support and resources for a variety of buildings, including multi-family and affordable housing, this effort will lead to more energy-efficient and cleaner buildings for communities across New York State and help to achieve our aggressive climate goals for a cleaner and greener future.”
The Low Carbon Pathways for Multifamily Buildings program is available on an open enrollment basis through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). It provides support for owners or managers of market-rate or affordable multifamily buildings implementing proven solutions that can be integrated into common types of upgrades in a building lifecycle to significantly improve the building’s energy performance. Solutions fostered by this program will have the potential to be replicated in many of the 1.7 million units of affordable housing households across the state. Owners may choose to implement one or more of four low-carbon improvement packages in their building, including:
· Building envelope improvements;
· Ventilation upgrades;
· Full electrification of the heating and cooling systems with efficient heat pump systems; and
· Partial or full electrification of the domestic hot water generation with efficient heat pumps.
Incentives range from $700 to $5,000 per dwelling unit, depending on the package. NYSERDA will evaluate projects on criteria such as energy savings and cost as well as ease of implementation, solution performance and maintenance needs, tenant receptivity, and avoided penalties/fees. Data collected will be used to inform the wider market.
Doreen Harris, President and CEO, NYSERDA said, “The Low Carbon Pathways for Multifamily Buildings program is another resource to help building owners take advantage of routine building upgrades to achieve low-carbon performance, and at a lower overall cost. By addressing emissions from this building type as a whole, we are advancing the portfolio-wide transformation needed to address building emissions block by block and community by community to ensure healthier living spaces and cleaner air for all New Yorkers.”
Cuomo’s announcement complements the recently released Low Carbon Multifamily Retrofit Playbooks and Low Carbon Capital Planning services offered through NYSERDA’s $8.8 million Flexible Technical Assistance (FlexTech) program, to provide holistic, start-to-finish support for building owners and managers, from understanding building typologies to planning and carrying out retrofit work to decarbonizing building portfolios over time.
NYSERDA developed the five Multifamily Low Carbon Retrofit Playbooks, which are free resource guides for multifamily building owners and managers, to break down a whole-building retrofit into packages that can be implemented independently to improve efficiency and electrify heating and domestic hot water over time. They were developed with real estate partners’ input using actual building data and designed around the common scenarios in a building lifecycle such as tenant turnover, equipment end-of-life, new building acquisition, and local mandates to provide real-world insights into practical, economic solutions to consider for upcoming investments.
For additional details and to apply, visit the Low Carbon Pathways for Multifamily Buildings Program website.
Funding for this initiative is through the State’s 10-year, $5.3 billion Clean Energy Fund. More information about this funding is available on NYSERDA’s website.
