The city of Troy, New York added five electric vehicles to their municipal fleet using a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority grant. The city received the grant as part of being designated a Clean Energy Community by NYSERDA. The five Nissan Leaf vehicles will replace older, less fuel-efficient vehicles. As they are capable of traveling up to 150 miles (~241 km) on a single charge, they are expected to save the city significant costs on fuel and maintenance.
In order to take advantage of NYSERDA funding and technical assistance, communities across New York state had to complete four out of the ten High Impact Actions in order to be designated a Clean Energy Community:
- benchmarking – adopt a policy to report the energy use of buildings;
- clean energy upgrades – achieve 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from buildings;
- LED street lights – convert street lights to energy efficient LED technology;
- clean fleets – install electric vehicle charging stations or deploy alternative fuel vehicles;
- solarize, clean heating and cooling, or solar-for-all campaigns;
- unified solar permit – streamline the approvals process for solar;
- energy code enforcement training – train compliance officers in energy code best practices;
- climate smart communities certification – get certified by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation;
- community choice aggregation – put energy supply choices in your community’s hands; and
- energize New York finance – offer energy upgrade financing to businesses and non-profits.
“With the support of NYSERDA and New York state, the city of Troy is continuing to diversify our green energy investments to help reduce costs and improve efficiencies in daily city operations,” said mayor Patrick Madden. “The addition of electric vehicles and charging stations will reduce our carbon footprint and promote energy-efficient transportation options for the public, part of our ongoing commitment to implementing climate-smart policies in our community.”
