Ithaca’s Energy Efficiency Retrofit and Thermal Load Electrification Program

In November 2021, the city of Ithaca, New York, voted to decarbonize and electrify buildings in the city by the end of the decade. Ithaca is the first U.S. city to establish such a plan, which the city says will cut Ithaca’s 400,000 tonsper year of carbon dioxide emissions by 40%.

The city’s Energy Efficiency Retrofit and Thermal Load Electrification Program seeks to gradually improve the overall energy performance of the city’s building stock, by assessing each individual building and determining potential energy efficiency improvements, through energy retrofitting and the substitution of non-electric thermal loads and air conditioning systems, with air-source and ground-source heat pumps, and the installation of efficient lighting, photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, onsite storage, smart thermostats and smart meters.

The plan is to turn the massive undertaking of decarbonizing Ithaca’s 6,000 buildings into a low-risk investment opportunity. Money from private investors is going to back  low-interest opt-in loan and lease programs that city residents will be able to tap into in order to  install heat pumps, convert to electric induction stoves, and improve their building’s energy efficiency, among other things. The loan and lease programs will be eligible for whatever work it takes to get a particular home or building to go green.

Following an RFP, the Office of Sustainability recommended that the city sign a contract with a consortium led by Blocpower recognizing them as Program Manager of the Energy Efficiency Retrofitting and Thermal Load Electrification Program. Ithaca’s common council commended the mayor to do so by the attached resolution.