Software Solutions for Enhancing the Monetization, Deployment and Origination of DERs

Joel Santisteban, Director of Platform at Ecogy

A Q&A with Joel Santisteban, Director of Platform

The Ecogy blog team sat down with Joel to learn about the EcoSuite and its cutting-edge features.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

What is the EcoSuite? 

The EcoSuite is Ecogy’s software platform, used internally and offered to our partners as a service in itself.

Developing commercial-scale renewable energy assets is notoriously difficult. The information sharing that needs to occur between stakeholders throughout the process creates friction. The EcoSuite streamlines this by serving as ‘a single source of truth’ from end to end, offering a rich set of deployment and monetization applications.

What can the EcoSuite do?

We like to break down the internal capabilities into three buckets: monetization, deployment, and origination.

It was monetization first. At Ecogy, as a developer and owner/operator, we could see that existing solutions for collecting data addcross disconnected systems clearly weren’t sustainable or scalable, so we thought, ‘we need to layer in software to consolidate that,’ so we can standardize it and aggregate it up so that we can view it and monetize it more effectively. 

We’ve developed the capability to remotely control our solar systems and load control devices––like HVAC units in demand response programs. We also have the ability to remotely shut down many of our assets using utility-required protocols. 

On the more cutting edge side, we received a grant from the DOE to pursue machine learning and artificial intelligence applications for solar. We cannot stress enough how valuable that will be not just to us but to the industry as a whole. We have the ability to deploy a machine learning algorithm, fully trained on years of historical data, and have it come to insights about our systems in real time. It may tell us, for instance, that an inverter is likely to fail before it happens. We can apply this to every solar system, potentially to every building. If this increases solar production around the country by one, two, three percent every year—that would be a game changer.

Our software can also manage field service requests for our O&M providers. We have assets across the entire East Coast, and we manage that all through our system.

On the deployment side, the EcoSuite is a development platform. It is where our team goes to find truth on a project. We have very detailed Gantt chart templates and dependency matrices that we feed into our platform to track timelines, which are directly connected to our cash flow forecasts. We have the ability to communicate with contractors on requests for information (RFIs), so that our engineering team can assist. We have a mobile app that we actively use to commission the EcoNode, the gateway that makes all this possible. We’re bringing this to the market for others’ use because we’re all in this together. We’re trying to empower the industry.

And then in the origination bucket, we’re sitting on a lot of data which enables us to systematically qualify whether or not a site is suitable for DERs, to qualify those sites across entire portfolios, and layer that in with industry-standard commercial contracts that we need to execute in order to actually have a product in the first place.

Since AI is so hot right now, I have to ask, how else do you see this being implemented into Ecogy’s tech?

I’m glad you asked. The goal here is all about enabling us to make better predictions about how our systems are going to perform and to accelerate the complex deployment process required to bring those systems to market. We’re developing a machine learning framework which we call SolarQuant that will enable researchers to easily apply trained machine learning models, including neural networks, to the grid-edge. It’s being developed as an open-source toolkit, so teams from around the world can experiment with it and share their findings on problems that all of us in the industry need to work together to solve.

We’re also developing specialized AI chatbot instances  that our team can interact with to answer questions about any of the systems in our portfolio, in any stage of development, with ease. We have equipped these chatbots with the ability to access data across our EcoSuite and the assets tracked within it, which otherwise would require manual searching and reporting to find. These instances will learn in real time from team conversations and decision making to support more efficient navigation of the complex development process. Stay tuned for further announcements about these functions.

Do you foresee the deployment application of the EcoSuite becoming a product in its own right?

Absolutely. We’ve been using it ourselves for many years now. We’re iterating on it every two weeks, and as a software development team we have the luxury of having our ‘customers’ sitting right next to us: the rest of the company. Using it, we’ve developed a reputation as a very effective developer with a history of executing. Now it’s time to roll it out to other folks who haven’t had the same resources or the experience or are just missing certain pieces of the puzzle that we can bring to the table and support with a partnership for the purpose of deploying more resources.

How is the EcoSuite helping us relative to our competitors? Why is it a strong value that we want to share with the wider world?

The development process is complex—truly complex—and our platform enables us to bring together all of the information needs of us and our stakeholders into a single, centralized place. And of course, it enables us to future-proof the way we monetize our assets. We can layer in market requirements and opportunities that might not exist today, remotely, because of the way we’re developing on an open source platform.

How does the EcoSuite help our customers today?

This is where I get excited. If I put myself in a customer’s shoes, with hundreds of properties, and each of those properties may or not be eligible for various different renewable energy resources and programs. What we’re offering our customers today is an industry-leading consolidated experience for the identification, development, and ultimate management of all these resources. 

It’s really compelling from a few angles. As a customer, it saves me a lot of time and energy to have all this information in one place, especially because there’s somebody I probably need to report to at the end of the day. And also, our software does not restrictively silo our customers into any specific hardware or resource mix, it is fully interoperable and it can handle the site nuances that we all know exist.

And then we’re bringing really cool technology to the table that will help with carbon accounting, carbon being ‘the unaccounted liability’ for all businesses, big and small. We’ll be able to do carbon accounting for our customers and report on it systematically.

What’s that technology?

We can translate generation, consumption, or dispatchable storage performance data into relevant carbon metrics, utilizing hourly fuel mix data from the local ISOs or grid operators, which is a level of granularity that often goes overlooked.

Most folks look at carbon accounting on a more volumetric, annual basis—‘Oh, I used this many kWhs this year, which is roughly equivalent to this many tons of CO2.’ But that’s not true. More accurate figures are time and location based. A kWh at 3pm in NYC is not worth the same, from a carbon—and price—perspective, as a kWh at 2am in Albany. We’ve layered this in and it’s a pretty cool hourly engine that we’re offering.

Ecogy’s nodes as they appear in the EcoSuite

We want to be enabling virtual power plants (VPPs). How will the EcoSuite allow for that?

The concept of the VPP is that now that I’ve done the hard work and deployed an array of heterogeneous resources, with different inverters and different batteries and ev chargers and load control devices, et cetera, I now have the ability to aggregate those resources and optimize the way we monetize them as a collective. 

A small standalone battery system can only do so much in the local distribution market at its property. But when combined with ten other storage systems across an ISO territory, it becomes a wholesale resource, a resource for the broader system. Our endgame is certainly that—because it’s the definition of optimizing the monetization of resources across a network.

But what’s really important to understand is that we’re also driving the approach to how VPPs participate in their various markets. We are thought leaders on the energy services interface (ESI), a protocol through which any individual resource or its aggregate will communicate with its stakeholders, those being the utility, DSO or the ISO. It’s important because this is the way we would go about achieving VPP-type monetization.

Is our ESI something we’d envision anybody and everybody using?

Yes. It’s the internet of the grid, and it’s available to all. It’s analogous to TCP/IP for the internet, but applied to the grid. We actually won a grant for developing this from the DOE via the Smart Electric Power Alliance’s (SEPA) DER Plug and Play Challenge. The ESI is how we proliferate interoperability across the grid. It is how resources will communicate with grid operators and how stakeholders will monetize assets. It also offers a standard data taxonomy associated with how we develop, finance, deploy and operate these assets.These fundamentals, the plumbing, are all open source and fully accessible. 

What’s the best part of your job?

I get to sit in the very fun position of being at the intersection of everything, engaging with the technical, deep-in-the-weeds folks but being a translator for what I know best, the commercial applications of these things. It’s the intersection between the technology and the commercial viability that is pretty unique and gives me exposure to the entire organization. It’s something new every day, to say the least.

The Rapidly Shifting Landscape of Solar Procurement

Traceability, timing, and domestic manufacturing dominate conversations


At first, procurement might sound like a boring part of the solar development process, compared with innovations in technology and financing that have spurred the greatest energy revolution since the 19th century. In reality, the story of solar procurement is one of international drama, ethical landmines, and policy battles that has major implications for the success of solar energy at large. 

 

Solar modules, racking, and inverters all need to be sourced and purchased before installation at a project site. Although the process has always been dynamic, recent legislation in the United States has dramatically upended the solar procurement landscape. New incentives have pushed developers like Ecogy toward purchasing American-made solar components, radically changing the procurement calculus.

 

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 has spurred the development of clean energy in numerous ways, but one particularly meaningful action was the expansion in timing and scope of the major tax credits known as the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the Investment Tax Credit (ITC). These credits by themselves increase the economic feasibility of renewable energy development by bringing down the total cost of projects. But in 2023, an addition to the credits, known as an “adder,” was made available. This adder gives an additional 10% tax credit to projects for which 40% of total materials spending is on domestically produced goods.

A row of solar inverters

American made solar components generally cost more than their foreign-produced counterparts. However, in many instances the 10% adder to the PTC and ITC tips the scales to ultimately make domestic components more economical than foreign components. Suddenly, the choice between purchasing domestic or foreign made solar components has become a major part of the procurement conversation.

 

However, domestic manufacturing remains just one piece of the procurement puzzle. A related issue that solar procurement professionals consider on a daily basis is the traceability of the goods they need. For ethical and compliance reasons, developers like Ecogy are extremely vigilant in their efforts to ensure that there is no forced labor in the supply chain of the components they acquire.

 

The particular materials breakdown of goods like modules is also important to ensure that they are of the highest quality. And now, with incentives to purchase domestically-manufactured goods, developers are keen to be able to demonstrate the precise percentage of their project that is domestically manufactured. Traceability has become doubly important.

 

Timing is another crucial slice of the procurement pie. Of course, it is of interest to developers like Ecogy that the goods they procure arrive on time for construction. Increased domestic procurement should ease tensions here because domestically produced goods are not at risk of being held up at port. However, timing goes the other way around, too. 


Developers must accurately forecast the timing of projects on their end. This is to ensure that they don’t end up purchasing and receiving goods that they’re not ready to use. That risk has the potential to increase costs for both developer and supplier. Ecogy has developed state of the art forecasting technology, part of its proprietary EcoSuite, that allows it to minimize these costs. The resulting savings are passed on to our partners in the form of higher rent payments on our site leases.

 

Construction underway at Ecogy’s Maryknoll project

Incentives like the ITC and its 10% adder also translate to higher rent payments for our customers. This is true in an immediate way—a tax credit means the cost of a system is ultimately lower, which means Ecogy has more money to offer to our partners, but also in an indirect, infinitely compounding way. By improving the individual economics of numerous projects across the board, many more projects become feasible.  This translates into more projects built, which translates to additional credibility when approaching suppliers, who, for timing reasons, are deeply invested in their purchasers’ reliability. 

 

As more projects become feasible due to these governmental incentives, developers like Ecogy also gain the advantage of economies of scale. Making bulk orders for multiple projects at a time brings down unit costs, allowing us to maximize the economic benefits to our partners and offer more attractive value propositions to prospective partners. It’s a positive feedback loop that continues indefinitely.

 

Unfortunately, the IRA and its attendant tax credits are under threat in Congress, as a contingent of lawmakers attempt to defeat the IRA in response to the recent debt ceiling crisis. Additionally, a group of lawmakers has proposed legislation that would undo many of the expansions of the PTC and ITC. These recent events point toward the continued need for companies and constituents to advocate for policies favorable to the development of clean energy. 

Riana Erickson, Ecogy’s own procurement manager, reiterates the importance of the IRA. “Embracing the influences of the IRA and shifting towards purchasing domestically manufactured solar equipment is a catalyst for success, bringing a multitude of benefits to the forefront,” she says. “It fosters economic growth by creating jobs, supporting local industries, and bolstering supply chains. Moreover, it ensures quality control, timely delivery, and fosters innovation, enabling us to build a sustainable future from within our borders. By procuring domestically, we forge a path towards self-reliance, resilience, and prosperity, while strengthening our communities and leaving a lasting positive impact on our nation.”

Brownfields, Butterflies, and Blooms of Algae: The Philosophy Behind Properly Sited Solar

As one of the most equitable and highly-customizable sources of renewable power, solar energy must be deployed with urgency in order to achieve the recommendations of groups like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”). But in the rush to deploy solar energy as quickly as possible, developers must be wary of excessive tree clearing or otherwise destroying the natural environment in order to build solar systems.

The space requirements of ground-mounted solar panels are such that if the United States were to meet all of its energy needs through the production of solar energy, it would demand 0.5% of the land area of the country, equivalent to 10.3 million acres.¹ A troubling consequence is that this space could end up being provided at the expense of pristine natural environments. Woodlands could be—and have been—cleared to make way for solar panels. Sixty-nine percent of all forest loss in the State of Rhode Island is due to solar development;² 150,000 acres of forest in Massachusetts could be lost as the state seeks to meet its climate goals;³ and in Maryland, concerns over land usage are leading counties to limit solar development⁴—in the middle of a climate crisis.

It is also a concern whenever solar arrays are placed on land that has other viable economic uses, such as farmland. Repurposing that land for solar energy can increase competition for limited space, encouraging further encroachment into the natural environment. To avoid this negative externality, solar developers like Ecogy are utilizing creative means to responsibly construct solar photovoltaic arrays.

Building on Brownfields

One way of limiting encroachment into the natural environment is to construct solar on brownfields, which are contaminated lands often unsuitable for other types of development. Solar developments are ideal on these properties because solar energy is economically and environmentally beneficial without requiring much in-person human management. Ecogy’s Wilmington Housing Authority project in Delaware is one example of a project located on a brownfield. The project reduces energy costs for the residents of multiple high rises which otherwise could not accommodate solar.

Ecogy’s Wilmington Housing Authority solar array, located on a brownfield.

Building on Water

A relatively new method of deploying solar without endangering forests is to make use of bodies of water, ideally those that are man-made and stagnant, such as reservoirs. There are few other productive uses for the surface area of reservoirs, and floating (but anchored) solar panels additionally help reduce evaporation and can potentially counteract toxic algae blooms.

A floating solar array in New Jersey. Ciel & Terre USA.

Building with Farms

Constructing solar alongside or above agricultural lands also doesn’t increase competition for land. This practice is known as agrivoltaics. Certain agricultural activities can continue virtually unimpeded even with the addition of stilted solar panels, allowing landowners to profit from both the proceeds of a solar system and from agricultural activity. Recent research from Cornell shows that agrivoltaics has the additional benefit of increasing the efficiency of the solar panels hosted on agricultural land. The crops and the soil below the panels provide a high cooling effect that allows the panels to operate more efficiently in hot weather. Additionally, some developers are hosting colonies of threatened pollinators and native wildflowers among their solar fields.

An agrivoltaic system. Insolight.

Solar on the Built Environment

Like other methods of responsible solar siting, placing solar above buildings and parking lots reduces the environmental impact of constructing solar systems.

There are a series of additional benefits to developing solar on the built environment. Perhaps most significantly, developing solar on the built environment generally reduces the distance that the energy has to travel from the site of production to the site of its consumption. Reservoirs, brownfields, and agricultural lands may be far removed from dense centers of population that have high energy demands. On the other hand, solar electricity produced on rooftops can often be fully consumed by the building on which it is located, or communities nearby. This usually reduces the final cost of the electricity that the solar system will provide.

Yet another advantage of producing solar energy on the built environment is that flat surfaces are ideal for solar development, and most rooftops in the commercial & industrial (C&I) space, which are large and usually located near operations with high energy demand, are perfectly flat. In many cases, rooftop solar does not even need to be racked: it can simply be ballasted, or just weighed down on the rooftop. From an aesthetic perspective, too, solar on the built environment is superior. Unless you’re like us, and you enjoy looking at handsome solar arrays, rooftop solar has the added advantage of being invisible to most passers-by, who might consider ground-mounted systems an eyesore.

Ecogy’s Maryknoll parking lot canopy in Westchester, NY.

Although solar on the built environment has its advantages, it is not always the cheapest way to go about providing solar power to communities. Sometimes, the expedient route for developers to take is simply to utilize pristine natural environments like woodlands or grasslands without consideration for the environmental consequences. It is the role of regulators to incentivize the responsible placement of solar arrays. There have been many successful state programs in the United States that have done just that. 

One, for example, is the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program in Massachusetts, which encourages developers to site their projects on brownfields, landfills, rooftops, and the like. Another example is New Jersey’s June 2021 act which mandates that all newly-constructed warehouses over 100,000 square feet in size reserve up to 40% of their rooftop space for solar. And a recently proposed bill in Rhode Island would require almost all new construction to be outfitted with solar panels. Policies like these spur climate action and energy savings while minimizing the risk of further degrading the environment.

Ecogy’s Windsor system, hosted by 30 Cutler in Warren, RI.

Constructing solar arrays on the built environment is one of Ecogy’s specialities. Click here to peruse our full portfolio.

Contact us if you’re interested in being paid to host solar on your rooftop, parking lot, or brownfield. 

Sources Cited:

¹ https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2021-09/Solar%20Futures%20Study.pdf

² https://ecori.org/leveling-forests-for-solar-advocates-for-green-energy-square-off-over-trees-vs-panels/

³ https://www.massaudubon.org/content/download/41477/1007612/file/Losing-Ground-VI_2020_final.pdf

⁴ https://thedailyrecord.com/2021/07/23/maryland-counties-grapple-with-controlling-growth-of-solar-farms/


Demand Response: Building Resiliency, Supporting Sustainability, and Making Money

WHAT IS DEMAND RESPONSE?

Demand response programs pay individuals and companies to reduce their electricity usage during times of peak energy demand. The programs are run by utilities and grid operators with the aim of alleviating stress on the energy grid during these times of peak demand. On very hot or very cold days, when more electricity is demanded of the grid than normal, grid operators and utilities must deploy backup energy sources in order to cover the extra demand and ensure that the grid can handle customers’ needs. 

However, the extra energy that is provided during these times of peak demand costs more than usual for the grid to provide. Engaging latent natural gas plants or burning extra coal incurs costs beyond the source of fuel and normal operational expenses. It costs a lot of money just to get power plants up and running, only to shut them down again a few hours later.

Demand response programs exist because grid operators and utilities have calculated that it can be cheaper to pay participants not to use electricity during times of peak demand than it is to pay the steep costs that would be associated with actually providing that electricity.

During demand response events, when the grid decides it is willing to pay to reduce demand, participating consumers are notified to implement energy demand reduction strategies for the duration of the event. They are then paid based on the amount of electricity they did not consume.

A curtailment service provider (CSP), such as Ecogy Energy, plays a key role in this process by serving as an intermediary between the grid operator or utility and the energy consumer. Ecogy is one of the few CSPs with the capabilities to address both generation and demand-side initiatives on behalf of our clients.

WHO BENEFITS FROM DEMAND RESPONSE?

Most immediately, demand response programs benefit participating energy customers because they get paid, and the programs benefit grid operators and utilities because they save money compared to providing the excess electricity required during times of peak demand. But demand response programs carry an even greater array of benefits.

In the United States, the grid infrastructure is outdated in many places. One consequence of this is that the grid oftentimes cannot accommodate the amount of electricity that must move through it. This problem is most severe during times of peak demand. If more electricity is needed than the grid is capable of providing, rolling blackouts become a possibility, endangering lives and stifling economic activity. Therefore, demand response programs benefit society at large by increasing grid resiliency and reducing the likelihood of blackouts.

Additionally, the extra energy supplied by the grid during periods of peak demand usually comes from high-carbon energy sources. While extra natural gas and extra coal can be burned on demand if needed, solar panels and wind turbines are intermittent resources, producing electricity at the whim of the natural environment. Therefore, reductions in energy demand during demand response events are especially beneficial to the environment and the fight against climate change.

Battery storage offers a potential solution to this problem. Batteries can be charged by renewable energy sources when demand is low and discharged when demand is high. In fact, some programs exist that pay for the development of batteries for this very reason. However, battery storage technology has not yet been deployed at the scale necessary to void the need for demand response programs. 

IS DEMAND RESPONSE RIGHT FOR ME?

If your local utility or grid operator gives you the option, demand response programs can benefit energy consumers of any size. A single house can participate by turning off its lights or adjusting its thermostat by a few degrees. Such strategies would yield proportionally greater returns for an apartment building, an office park, or a skyscraper. The more electricity you can save, the more lucrative demand response will be for you.

Manufacturing facilities consume vast amounts of energy, and a series of other factors make them prime contenders for demand response programs. One step that electricity providers take in the event of an overburdened grid is reducing the voltage of the electricity they provide. This can damage critical equipment including variable frequency drives (VFDs), a central component of many commercial and industrial operations. Demand response programs allow facilities to insulate themselves from such fluctuations. During the demand response periods, facilities can use the time for things like routine maintenance or training—while simultaneously getting paid for reducing their electricity usage.

If your facility already has battery storage installed, it may be able to participate in demand response events while continuing normal operations, just drawing from battery power rather than from the grid.

Lastly, demand response is a green initiative, so participation in a demand response program can help your organization meet its sustainability goals, or help your organization fall in line with governmental sustainability regulations, such as those laid out by New York City’s Local Law 97. 

WHY ECOGY?

Ecogy is proud to be a trustworthy partner to a wide variety of organizations, from affordable housing communities and houses of worship to multinational corporations. With our extensive experience in the renewable energy space, we understand that there is both a proactive and a reactive side to energy. There’s more to sustainability than just renewable energy generation; the demand response side of our businesses represents our commitment to energy efficiency as well.

Our proprietary and advanced energy monitoring device, the Econode, makes us a particularly strong demand response partner because it allows your facility to monitor, in real time, how much your business’s electricity is being reduced during demand response events, in addition to a host of other benefits. Our experience in solar energy means that the Econode and its accompanying software are tried-and-tested products that will make your participation in a demand response program as seamless as possible.

To see if demand response is right for you, and to get paid to reduce your energy consumption, contact us.

Preventing Blackouts: The Brooklyn and Queens Energy Storage Incentive

What is the BQESI?

As the climate changes, summer is becoming more and more energy intensive. When temperatures rise, people turn on their air conditioners, straining the electrical grid, which is already becoming overburdened by the increasing “electrification” of our society—cars, stoves, and more, which once didn’t rely on the electrical grid, now make significant demands of it.

With this reality, the risk of there not being enough electricity available to go around during periods of peak demand is greater than ever. Those times, usually in the afternoons and evenings in the summer, risk seeing rolling blackouts if the grid’s capacity can’t expand enough to accommodate the high demand.

 

To avoid blackouts and an overburdened grid, utilities like New York’s ConEdison are experimenting with a wide variety of programs to encourage people to modulate their electricity use in ways that help the grid stay afloat. The Brooklyn and Queens Energy Storage Incentive (BQESI) is one such program. It encourages the development of battery storage systems that can provide the grid with backup power during times of peak demand.

 

The Specifics

As the name suggests, the BQESI targets large swaths of Brooklyn and Queens that ConEdison has deemed in need of additional storage capacity.

A map, provided by ConEdison, of the Brooklyn Queens Demand Management (BQDM) region, for which the BQESI is applicable.

In these neighborhoods, ConEdison will pay developers to build and dispatch up to 5 MW of capacity in battery storage systems. The systems must be submitted to ConEdison for approval before the end of the year, 2023, and must be operational by May 1st, 2026. The batteries, under the terms of the program, must be available for ConEdison’s use during the Summer Performance Period, from May through September, when electricity is generally in highest demand, for 10 years.

 

While energy developers like Ecogy Energy will be the direct recipients of ConEdison’s funding, any property owner within the parameters of the program can profit from it, because Ecogy will rent available space within the program boundaries at standard commercial real estate rates. The battery storage systems that will be employed all have approval from the FDNY.

 

For more specifics on the program, visit ConEdison’s webpage on the subject. 

 

Should You Participate in the Program?

For property owners within its boundaries, the program offers an excellent opportunity to monetize otherwise unused space, where, for instance, a couple unused parking spots or a dumpster might currently sit. But some properties within the program area are better contenders for participation in the program than others.

 

Ideal properties already have large energy usage, guaranteeing that the grid connections at the site are strong enough to accommodate the addition of the battery storage system. Additionally, large energy users are well suited for the program because during times of peak demand, the energy supplied by the battery will not have to travel far in order to reduce strain on the grid. 

Ideal contenders to work with Ecogy in taking advantage of the opportunity will not have the background or expertise to develop the battery storage solutions themselves. Ecogy will develop, finance, own, and operate the battery storage systems, and the property owner will be paid for the use of the space.

 

The program will be of additional benefit to some site owners if their facilities are subject to Local Law 97. The emissions reductions mandated by that law can be achieved, at least in part, by hosting battery storage systems on or off site. During times when the energy mix being supplied to the grid is composed of relatively high proportions of renewable energy, the battery can be charged. Then, during periods when fossil fuels predominate the energy supply, the battery can be discharged, averting the use of the difference in proportions of fossil fuels between the two periods. This process can potentially aid in preventing some large facilities, like apartment buildings, from racking up expensive fines.

 

Why Ecogy?

If your property meets the above criteria, then the BQESI is for you. Ecogy will finance, install, own, and operate the battery, and you will reap the benefits in the form of rent payments for your otherwise unused space. 

Brooklyn is Ecogy’s home, so we have the local know-how to be your trusted partner, as we have been for a wide variety of organizations, ranging from affordable housing communities to Fortune 500 corporations. We specialize in the development and operation of distributed energy resources—not just limited to solar—of which battery storage is a major one. We are committed to social impact and to helping organizations meet their sustainability goals.

 

To begin the time sensitive process of utilizing the BQESI to make money, to meet your sustainability goals, and to support grid resiliency, contact us.

Local Law 97: Curbing NYC Building Emissions

host SOLAR ON YOUR ROOFTOP.
SAVE YOUR BUSINESS FROM PENALTIES.

New York City property owners have felt new regulatory pressures in recent months due to a recent Building Emissions Reduction bill passed by the City council. The law, officially titled Local Law 97 (“LL97”) or the Climate Mobilization Act, sets a carbon emissions cap for buildings with a gross area greater than 25,000 sqft.

While the legislation will help reduce the city’s air and climate pollution particularly in industrial areas, it does leave the commercial real estate industry uncertain as to how their businesses will be affected by it.

The team here at Ecogy has compiled a list of answers to your most frequently asked questions.

Clouds of smoke rise from industrial buildings in Queens, NY. If these emissions aren’t curbed in the next four years, property owners will face penalties.

Source: Public Good

What does Local law 97 actually regulate?

The goal of LL97 is to achieve a 40% reduction of citywide emissions by 2030. The City Council found that the most practical way to achieve this is by enforcing a carbon emissions cap on buildings with a gross area greater than 25,000 sq ft.

Emissions will be measured in tons of “Carbon Dioxide Equivalents” (tCO2e). Your tCO2e will be determined from a number of factors including electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and district steam usage. This will be determined by a yearly energy assessment by the Office of Building Energy and Emissions Performance.

The emissions cap will vary based on two factors: gross area and occupancy zone. This means that larger buildings will have more room to emit.

For more information on your building’s use and occupancy classification, please click here.

What will it cost me?

Business owners could be liable for almost $150,000 in penalties from 2024-2029 and nearly $800,000 from 2030-2034 as penalties ramp up.

This estimate and calculator are strictly for informational purposes only. Ecogy does not hold any claims or responsibilities for the accuracy of this estimate.*

When will the bill take affect?

While property owners are encouraged to begin reducing their emissions as soon as possible, penalties will not begin until January 1, 2024. Starting then, all buildings which have emissions caps will have their energy usage audited.

What Are the penalties for non-compliance?

For every tCO2e that a building emits over their emissions cap, a penalty of no more than $268 will be charged to the property owner.

Thus, buildings in occupancy groups with lower emissions caps will face larger fines. These include manufacturing, retail, business, and residential facilities.

is solar an appropriate alternative for emissions?

Yes! LL97 considers “solar photovoltaics” a clean distributed energy source. A property owner will be able to receive a deduction from their emissions limit requirement when demonstrating the purchase of renewable energy credits or through the consumption of clean distributed energy resources.

how should building owners prepare for the implementation of local law 97?

Ecogy believes that two of the best ways to offset fees are through on-site solar production and energy monitoring.

Solar generation can offset your building’s emissions, helping you avoid penalties while providing you with an additional revenue stream from Ecogy’s site lease payments.

Because Ecogy can fully finance, own, and operate your rooftop system, we have every incentive to use the highest quality technology and equipment in order to maximize the generation from your rooftop.

Additionally, Ecogy is pleased to offer next-generation commercial energy monitoring services through our Econode product.

Using real-time monitoring software, we can help you track your building’s inefficient energy usage and streamline your energy audit experience, leading to increased long-run savings.