While the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo last year provides a roadmap to a New York free of greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury, the window of opportunity to avert “dramatic and irreversible effects of climate change” is closing fast, the East Hampton Town Board was told on Tuesday.
That urgency, Gordian Raacke of Renewable Energy Long Island told the board, should translate to, among other things, more stringent building ordinances that should become even more strict with each update, in the effort to reach the town’s own goal of deriving all of its energy from renewable sources.
The new state law mandates that all sectors in New York’s economy be carbon neutral by 2050, with an intermediate goal of a 40-percent reduction by 2030. Emissions reductions are to be achieved through renewable energy and energy efficiency measures. The Act sets target dates for carbon-free electricity, renewable energy derived from solar panels and offshore and land-based wind farms, battery storage, and energy savings through efficiency.
”The building sector is going to play a major role in this transition to renewables and meeting our climate goals,” Mr. Raacke said. Reduced energy consumption will be achieved through dramatic improvements in buildings’ energy efficiency and electrification of heating systems through use of heat pumps, which absorb heat from a cold space and release it to a warmer one. “These new heating systems are much more energy-efficient than . . . oil and gas and propane boilers and furnaces,” he said.
One target of the new law is on-site energy savings of 185 trillion BTUs by 2025. “That would get us nearly one-third of the way to the interim greenhouse-gas reduction goal of 40 percent by 2030,” Mr. Raacke said. “The building sector is going to play a major role in this transition to renewables and meeting our climate goals.” That is why a more stringent code is essential, he said.
East Hampton should adopt the NYStretch Energy Code, a statewide model code for jurisdictions to use to accelerate the drive to net-zero building, Mr. Raacke said. “We need to think seriously now about speeding things up by considering mandatory requirements, versus just relying on voluntary action,” he said. “I think that’s an important thing we have to keep in mind, and we need to scale up dramatically, not only speed things up . . . in order to make it. We have a very small window of opportunity left.”
It is predicted that electric vehicles will constitute at least half of new light-duty vehicle sales by 2030, Mr. Raacke said, with heavy-duty vehicles at 35 to 55 percent. “That will be a key driver in how we are going to decarbonize the transportation sector.” The efficiency of an electric vehicle is much greater than an internal combustion engine-powered vehicle, he said, so “the amount of total energy consumed in the transportation sector decreases every decade. That is because of the great improvement in converting energy to motion in our transportation sector.”
As energy use shifts from fossil fuels to electricity, demand for the latter will naturally rise. Generating 100 percent of that electricity from renewable sources effectively decarbonizes the transportation, building, and industrial sectors, Mr. Raacke told the board. “End-use electrification is instrumental in eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, statewide and here in East Hampton.”
A white paper prepared by the State Department of Public Service and the State Energy Research and Development Authority anticipates substantial additional electricity demand from heat pumps and electric vehicles. The climate act mandates that 70 percent of that demand must come from renewable sources by 2030. “We already have constructed statewide, or contracted, about half of this,” Mr. Raacke said, mostly solar farms and offshore wind under contract. By 2050, “the majority of our energy will be coming from wind energy, a good chunk from solar,” and “a sliver left of nuclear generation” from existing power plants.
The Energize East Hampton initiative helps residents access programs to save energy and reduce energy costs. Offerings include free home energy audits and discounted costs on solar installations through GreenLogic Energy, Lauren Steinberg of the town’s Natural Resources Department told the board. Information is at energizeeh.org.
”This is something that we all have to own,” said Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc. “We have to take hold here and consider the steps that we as individuals can take, and take responsibility for where we are and where we want to go.”
