New York Governor Reveals Plan to Electrify Homes, Attain Zero-Emissions Construction

New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Jan. 5 outlined a plan to raise the rate of electrification of homes from about 20,000 homes per year to more than tenfold by 2030 and achieve two million electrified or electrification-ready homes. The plan includes workforce training, upgrading appliance efficiency standards, and mandatory energy benchmarking for large buildings. Governor Hochul also announced a legislative proposal to attain zero on-site greenhouse gas emissions from new buildings no later than 2027.

The plan commits to one million electrified homes and up to one million electrification-ready homes by end of the decade, and ensuring that over 800,000 of these are low- to moderate-income households.The plan aims to create a dedicated green electrification fund and a $25 billion, five-year housing capital plan to electrify low-income homes, in a bid to advance the state’s goals of creating green affordable housing.

Further, the plan would require the New York State Energy and Development Authority, Homes and Community Renewal, Department of Public Service, and Department of State to come up with an executable plan to achieve the goal, along with a funding proposal and strategies to utilize private capital.

Under this strategy, Governor Hochul will also direct the Department of Public Service to avoid investments in the expensive gas infrastructure, examine the most reasonable and cost-effective strategies for withdrawing or repurposing current infrastructure, encourage alternative energy to decrease gas consumption, and engage members of underprivileged communities in the gas transition.

The plan includes new construction codes, with greenhouse gas reduction objectives, updated building codes, with cost-effectiveness criteria to account for the full lifetime of installed equipment. Decarbonization plans also include the expansion of the green schools’ program to more than 1,000 schools in underserved communities. A virtual power plant consisting of solar panels, batteries and other equipment would also be demonstrated at government buildings.