We often hear the refrain that clean energy technologies hold much promise but are not sufficiently developed for near-term deployment in today’s market. This presentation will not only demonstrate that these technologies are currently technologically viable but also cost effective.

Over the past several months a group of about 40 community members have come together to question the need for a 7-mile natural gas pipeline through Dryden that has been proposed by NYSEG. Before committing our community to an increased dependency on methane by locking our region into an expanded fossil fuel infrastructure, decision- makers should become familiar with the full costs, risks, and benefits of methane as compared to alternative energy strategies.

Our group has undertaken energy and economic modeling to compare the costs of space heating and domestic hot water for residential and commercial buildings, fueled by either methane, ground-source heat pumps, or air-source heat pumps coupled with improvements to building envelopes and renewable sources of energy. Included in this work is also an exploration of both the economic impacts of projected price increases over the next two decades for these energy systems as well as the climate impacts and other externalities that the wider community must bear if we were to expand our dependence on methane. As a group of concerned members of the community, our ultimate objective is a full cost accounting approach to making decisions on our choice of energy resources to help identify those most aligned with the overall public interest.

The program will be specifically tailored to address the energy needs of an increasingly densified City of Ithaca. The costs and disruption to the City of expanded natural gas infrastructure has been readily apparent over the past 2 years. Improvements in building energy efficiency as well as the utilization of on-site renewable energy technologies may allow us to avoid such intrusive community impacts.

Join us for a presentation by Dr. Brice Smith, Graduate Program Coordinator in Sustainable Energy Systems, SUNY Cortland.  Melissa Kemp, Program Director of Solar Tompkins, and Gay Nicholson, President of Sustainable Tompkins, will also provide contributions to the program.