Page 24 - 2024 Westchester County Economic Development Guide

Sustainability
Advancing Towards
A Clean Energy Future
County Director of Energy & Sustainability Peter McCartt talks about Westchester’s environmental wins, priorities and vision for a more sustainable future. Here, he discusses:
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GUIDE
Reducing Westchester’s dependency on fossil fuel.
In recent years, Westchester has taken critical steps to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and embrace a renewable energy infrastructure that will lower costs for residents and protect our planet from the catastrophic effects of climate change. I am happy to report that a
large percentage of the electricity via the New York Power Authority used by the County for daily operations is derived from renewable sources, particularly hydroelectricity.
Supporting our net emissions goals.
To help achieve our ambitious goal of zero net emissions, Westchester County is entering the second phase of a comprehensive campaign with solar photovoltaic panels
via Community Solar, which offers residents the ability
to purchase solar power at a discount, without the need
to install panels on their homes. e County will also be administering a Solarize Westchester campaign. Working with Sustainable Westchester, the County will be supporting many other residential and local campaigns, including air- and ground-sourced heat pumps. Another exciting project with major implications for us all is the recently announced, massive wind farm upstate, which will supply 2.2 giga watts of wind energy to half a million homes in Westchester.
We are also working with the NY Power Authority and the NY Independent Service Operators of the electric grid on transmission of Atlantic Ocean wind farms and Upstate solar farms to us in the New York City metro region.
Balancing our energy supply.
e County has expanded its demand response program with NuEnergen, which enables it to balance energy supply and demand in the County and helps protect against unplanned power outages. is program also helps the County earn substantial money over the life of the contract, minimize the need for more fossil fuel infrastructure, and provides an opportunity to further enhance the County’s sustainability efforts.
Clean Transportation
Westchester County’s air quality has historically gotten an F largely due to the high volume of cars and trucks travelling across our major roadways. In line with the County’s commitment to clean transportation, our entire bus fleet is now electric or electric hybrid and our entire fleet of sedans is now electric, and we have select electric pickups and one EV Mustang Police Car. Additionally, the majority of equipment at the Airport is electric. By law, any vehicle that we purchase has to be an electric vehicle if an electric vehicle is available for that model. Also, whenever we do work on a County parking lot or if a company that gets tax incentives from the County is doing work on their parking lot, 20% of the spaces must have EV chargers.
e County has over 400 EV chargers that will be completed and over 100 already operating. e County
also just kicked off an extremely innovative municipal grant program for EV Chargers. 50% of the cost will be covered by the County, through our contractor, FLO EV Chargers. is grant can be coupled with the many incentives from ConEd, NYSEG, NYSERD, and the federal government, bringing the cost to zero or nearly zero. 601 charger applications have already been submitted for this program.
Solid Waste
e County has the best stats and record in NY State on dealing with our garbage, aka solid waste:
Dual Stream Recycling by 92% of the population
in Westchester is driven by the diligence of County homeowners and businesses. Westchester also leads
in composting due in large part to most municipalities having enjoined with the County’s Food Scrap Recycling Transportation & Disposal Program. A volunteer curb-side textile recycling program for all municipalities will be coming this spring; reach out to your local Department of Public Works. We additionally have the Household – Material Recovery Facility in Valhalla right next to the Compost Education Center where two tons of compost is created each week.