NYC Council Renewable Energy Conference; Geothermal is Key

February 27, 2015, NYC-CUNY-The New York City Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection recently invited experts in renewable energy systems to provide guidance toward implementation of site-sourced and stored renewable energy.

Claudine Schneider with Hannah Egg

Former US Representative Claudine Schneider (R-RI, 1980-1990), author of the first Appliance Efficiency Standards Act that led to the Energy Star rating system, shared her vision and provided direction and inspiration toward implementation of wind, solar and geothermal technologies.

Donovan Richards, Jr, NYC Council Member and Chairman of the Committee on Environmental Protection presided and was engaged and actively working to understand the potential for these programs to help NYC as it achieves its energy and CO2 emissions reduction goals.

Geothermal is Key to Achieve 80% CO2 Reduction by 2050

Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced that New York City is committing to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent over 2005 levels by 2050, starting with, “One City, Built to Last: Transforming New York City’s Buildings for a Low-Carbon Future” – a sweeping plan to retrofit public and private buildings to dramatically reduce the city’s contributions to climate change, while spurring major cost savings and creating thousands of new jobs for New Yorkers who most need them. The overriding theme in the NYC Council Site-Sourced and Stored Renewable Energy Conference was that Geothermal Heat Pumps (GHP’s) are at the epicenter in the City’s goal to eliminate combustion heating.

All-electric geothermal or “ground-sourced” heating and cooling systems are the most efficient heating and cooling systems available in the world today according to the DOE and Energy Star.  The electrical grid is powered by increasingly renewable technologies, and New York boasts that 27% of the electricity state-wide is supplied from clean and renewable sources such as hydro, solar and wind power.

The conference presenters went on to illustrate that nearly 80% of all energy needed for heating buildings and systems in the City will come from GHP’s extracting the solar energy stored in the earth.  In turn, cooling systems will send summer heat extracted from the buildings back into the earth during the cooling season, an added benefit to seasonal solar absorption (normal sunshine absorption). GHP’s are known for their ability to provide up to 5 units of heat for each unit of electricity used.

Thermal Mapping Can Identify Waste Heat

Demonstrations of thermal load sharing showed that even in the dead of winter, many commercial office buildings are “cooling dominant”.  Buildings that are rejecting heat during the winter could share that heat with adjacent buildings that need heating through a thermal-grid network.

Chairman Richards asked that The Durst Organization (one of the day’s presenters) engage the geothermal experts in the implementation of geothermal sourced thermal or mini-grids.  The Durst Organization manages an impressive portfolio in the city with such building as One World trade Center, One Bryant Park and 4 Times Square.

Watch this blog for occasional updates on NYC’s progress toward energy efficiency and elimination of combustion heating.

Jay Egg is a geothermal consultant, writer, and the owner of EggGeothermal. He has co-authored two textbooks on geothermal HVAC systems published by McGraw-Hill Professional. He can be reached at jayegg.geo@gmail.com