Tagged: nyserda

In our latest Innovation Trail report for New York NOW, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of a suburban home outside of Schenectady to see how much energy it wastes each day.

A new program from the state's Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is trying to fix that.

The program helps homeowners pay for major energy efficiency upgrades - by simply paying their power bills.

Watch the full story below:

Watch NY Helps Homeowners Save Energy on PBS. See more from New York NOW.

A new program launched by New York's Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) earlier this week aims to make it easier for homeowners to pay for energy efficiency upgrades.

The new initiative is part of the Green Jobs Green New York program, and it's called an "on-bill recovery loan." 

The program allows homeowners to get a low interest loan to finance up to $25,000 worth of energy efficiency upgrades to their homes - everything from improved insulation, to a new boiler, or energy efficient appliances.

The way they pay back that loan? Paying their power bill.

A new report from the Brookings Institution [PDF] finds investment in clean energy is paying off for New York.

Brookings found that the states known to have clean energy funds have invested $2.7 billion in renewable energy in the past decade.

And they're seeing that investment come back four-fold.

Beacon Power Corporation, a Massachusetts-based renewable energy company, is declaring bankruptcy - after receiving federal funds from the same program that subsidized the failed solar firm Solyndra. 

The company also received funding from New York State.

Last July, Beacon Power celebrated the opening of its new flywheel plant in Stephentown, N.Y.

The flywheels were designed to help modernize the state’s power grid. They act as a sort of shock-absorber, to quickly store and release energy to the grid.

The project received $43 million from the United States Department of Energy, and $2 million from New York’s Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

Battery technology has helped untether us all from electrical cords, but there’s a price to being portable.

Batteries are rigid and heavy. They need to be recharged and replaced frequently, and they’re full of toxic chemicals.

That’s why a small, start-up company outside of Albany, called Paper Battery, is working to change the way we store our energy.

Its latest product is made out of paper, but it’s not exactly a battery.