Mohawk Valley

Aerial view of southern Herkimer County – photo by Amy Wyant

By Amy Wyant, Clean Energy Communities Coordinator
The Clean Energy Communities Program has been a great success in the Mohawk Valley. The 46 communities that have participated in the program, submitting a total of 122 High Impact Actions, each came to the table with a desire to improve their communities while saving taxpayer money and improving the environment in which they live.
Of these 46 communities, 21 received grant funding toward projects in their communities to complete additional clean energy projects.

 

The projects in the Mohawk Valley range from LED Street Lighting,Solar and geothermal installations, electric vehicle fleets, wastewater treatment blowers, building and envelope improvements, municipal building LED interior lighting, HVAC and boiler efficiency upgrades.

Over the lifetime of these projects, the combined impact will be over 32,434 MT of CO2 in emissions. These savings are calculated on the grant funded projects alone, meaning that all of the High Impact Actions that communities completed to receive funding are emissions savings over and above!

Many of these communities took on the Clean Energy Communities for a double bottom line. They wanted to not only save GHG emissions, but also to save their constituents’ hard earned money! And they will–the projected tax dollar savings for the MV projects are over $12 Million. A 700% return on investment is what we would call an amazing success.