Schenectady to receive $1M to retrofit homes with green technology

SCHENECTADY — The city will be moving forward with a program that would retrofit low- and middle-income homes with green technology after being awarded $1 million as part of the federal government’s year-end appropriations bill.

Plans for the so-called Schenectady Community Virtual Power Plant were unveiled in May and are expected to move forward in the new year after a few details are worked out, Mayor Gary McCarthy said Monday.

The program will see low- and middle-income households equipped with green technology like solar panels, battery storage systems and machine-learning technology that will track how and when energy is used in the home and determine when to store and sell off energy. The city will be partnering with EcoLONG, an Albany-based renewable energy company.

The goal of the new program is to create a network of homes equipped with technology to capture and store energy, monitor its overall use and autonomously determine when to sell the energy back to the power grid, reducing overall energy costs.

Officials in the spring said the program would supplement the city’s Home Ownership Made Easy, or HOMES, program, which was created more than a decade ago as a way to reduce blight and increase homeownership by recycling salvageable tax-foreclosed homes, but McCarthy said additional partners are still being looked into.

“This will help us in terms of housing affordability and environmental sustainability, and continue to build on the Smart City platform that we have in the city,” McCarthy said, referring efforts to extend public WiFi and other technology throughout the city in recent years.

Funding for the program was included as part of the $1.7 trillion federal appropriation bill recently approved by Congress and expected to be signed into law by President Joseph Biden in the coming days. The legislation will keep the federal government running through the end of next year.

U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, included the program as part of his community development and improvement package that included 14 other projects totaling $12.8 million. Each member of Congress is allowed to submit a package of projects for funding consideration.

All 15 projects Tonko submitted were included in the spending bill, including $1.5 million for the Schenectady Community Action Program to build transitional housing on its Albany Street campus, and $2.3 million for RISE Housing and Support Services of Saratoga Springs to assist those living with mental health and substance use disorders.

Other projects set to receive funding included $650,000 for upgrades to Esperanza Verde Park in Amsterdam and $469,333 to create a business incubator at the Amsterdam Free Library.

“The community projects in our Capital Region bring incredible promise for our communities with key investments that will drive economic growth, create good jobs and propel our Capital Region forward,” Tonko said in a statement.

McCarthy said it was unclear how many homes would be able to be retrofitted with the technology, noting ongoing issues relating to inflation and supply chains, but noted he plans to work with the City Council to fund the program using federal coronavirus-relief funds the city received as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.

The city is currently in the process of finalizing contracts for more than a dozen projects that were awarded nearly $25 million in ARPA funding earlier this year. The city has around $8 million in funding left to allocate.

“We’re still working with the City Council on allocating some of that money,” McCarthy said.

Contact reporter Chad Arnold at: [email protected] or by calling 518-395-3120.

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