The Village of Bergen is the latest local municipality to be designated a Clean Energy Community by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The designation recognizes the Village of Bergen’s leadership in reducing energy use, cutting costs and driving clean energy locally.
“The goals of energy conservation and the continued effort of the village to increase our use of clean energy are moving forward through our participation in the Clean Energy Community initiative,” Bergen Mayor Anna Marie Barclay says. “The designation of the Village as a Clean Energy Community, and our commitment to advancing clean energy efforts into the future, help make us ‘Bergen Proud’.”
To earn the Clean Energy Community designation, the village completed four high-impact clean energy actions: Benchmarking – the adoption of a policy to report the energy use of buildings; LED street lights – the village has converted street lights to energy efficient LAD technology; Unified Solar Permit – the unified permit streamlines the approval process for solar; and Energy Code Enforcement Training, which provides training for compliance officers in energy code best practices.
According to NYSERDA, cities, counties, towns and villages that complete at least four of 10 high-impact clean energy actions are designated Clean Energy Communities. The Village of Bergen is now eligible to apply for up to $50,000 toward additional clean energy projects, with no local cost share.
Announced by Governor Cuomo in August of 2016, the $16 million Clean Energy Communities initiative supports local government leaders across New York State to implement energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable development projects in their communities. Clean Energy Communities advances the Governor’s Reforming Energy (REV) strategy by demonstrating the importance of communities in helping New York reach its Clean Energy Standard of 50 percent of the state’s electricity coming from renewable energy resources by 2030.
