Author: Jessica Lobo, AEG Fellow, New York City
New York City experienced a massive heat wave last week. While after a week of what seemed like endless rainstorms, you would think New Yorkers would scramble to spend time in the sun soaking in that much needed vitamin D after a year of quarantine and week of rain. But it was too hot. Air conditioning was a thing of survival last week.
An increase in summer heat waves over the last decade for New York poses many issues for New York’s building stock. The first are the rising utility bills, and associated with this increased use in air conditioning, is more energy use, and thus more carbon emissions.
For this reason, New York City’s building stock is about to set off on a journey of electrification. However, this journey comes with countless obstacles. There are concerns regarding the reliability, technology, grid support and cost.
With help from representatives of the New York City Housing Authority, Jaros Baum & Bolles (JB&B), BlocPower and ConEdison, here are the most critical obstacles we identified at last quarter’s AEG New York 21Q2 Stakeholder Challenge on Buildings & Construction:
Uncertainty
In the face of uncertainty, we have a natural human instinct to stick with what we know. In this case, a business-as-usual approach creates major long-term risks for building owners and New Yorkers in general. How do we encourage building owners to ignore their natural instinct to delay the electrification journey in the face of irreducible and overwhelming uncertainty?
For the full presentation, please listen here
2. Costs
This journey of electrification will be harder for certain communities than others. We must work to ensure that electrified buildings are affordable for their owners, no matter who the owner is. Electrifying a building through technologies such as heat pumps is a costly endeavor. How can we lower such costs of installing clean and innovative technologies?
For the full presentation, please listen here
3. Funding
Even if costs continue to trend downward, public funding will still be needed for communities that won’t be able to afford going on this journey alone. Contrary to how funds need to go beyond fixing or replacing old technology but rather need to go toward updating an entire system that will work for newer and cleaner technology. How can we ensure public funding is aligned with a trajectory that will ensure a building’s long-term sustainability?
For the full presentation, please listen here
We need to make sure New Yorkers can use air conditioning as much as they need to throughout the summer months without worrying about a panic-inducing electricity bill or their carbon footprint. It’s truly a matter of life or death. People die in summer heat without access to air conditioning. In 1995, Chicago experienced a heat wave that led 739 people to die of heat-related causes. In New York City, roughly over 13,000 public school classrooms and more than half of the public housing units don’t have air conditioning.
Despite the uncertainty of the electrification journey, electrifying building stocks and decarbonizing the NY power grid in a way that’s affordable and equitable brings certainty to a future where New Yorkers can use their air conditioning as much as they need without contributing to carbon emissions and further endangering their health.
If you’re interested in getting involved with AEG New York’s 21Q2 Task Force on these issues, please contact us.