Head Of New York Power Authority Cites Need For Clean Energy Sources

Timothy S. Carey, New York Power Authority (NYPA) president and chief executive officer stated earlier this week ''the imperatives of fuel diversity and environmental protection demand that we focus on a new generation of clean energy sources."

“We must identify and develop the technologies that will best enable us to cut our dependence on oil from hostile or potentially hostile foreign sources, to combat global warming and other threats to our environment and to assure the reliable, affordable energy needed to fuel economic growth,” said Carey while at the 5th annual Quebec Energy Forum.

Carey told the audience that the “pragmatic environmentalism” of New York Governor George E. Pataki has helped position NYPA to play a key role in meeting the state’s needs for clean, reliable energy.

Under Pataki’s leadership, he said, the NYPA is helping to implement an initiative to encourage private sector development of one or more clean-coal power plants in New York State and is planning a “Hydropower to Hydrogen” program in which hydroelectric power will be used, in an emission-free process, to produce hydrogen as a fuel for transportation. In addition, he said, NYPA has installed 14 fuel cells and 25 solar photovoltaic projects.

Carey said NYPA’s large hydroelectric projects on the St. Lawrence and Niagara rivers, which share water resources with Ontario Power Generation, and the Authority’s 765-kilovolt transmission line from Quebec are major sources of clean energy that help to reduce New York State’s reliance on oil for electricity production.

He said the two hydro projects supply about 19% of New York State’s electricity, providing a solid foundation for meeting a state requirement that at least 25% of the total come from renewable sources by 2013.

Carey noted, however, that no major hydroelectric sites remain to be developed in the state and that current energy challenges require “innovative responses that go beyond building large new transmission lines and power plants, necessary and appropriate as these actions may sometimes be.”

In addition to developing clean power sources, Carey said NYPA is committed to promoting energy efficiency and the development of green buildings designed to save energy and water, improve the environment, and protect the health of occupants.

“It is my goal,” he said, “to make the Power Authority the cleanest and greenest electric utility anywhere.”

Carey said NYPA has invested more than $1 billion over the past 15 years in energy efficiency and clean energy projects at government buildings, schools, and other public facilities throughout New York State and is on target to spend $100 million for such purposes in 2006.

He said completed projects reduce peak demand for electricity by more than 200 megawatts and annually save taxpayers almost $100 million through reduced energy and maintenance costs, avoid the burning of more than 1.8 million barrels of oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 760,000 tons.

After investing almost $3.5 million in a comprehensive energy efficiency project at its headquarters building in White Plains, NY, Carey said the NYPA is implementing various other measures with the goal of achieving certification for the building under the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED program. “There is enormous potential for quality, economically sound investment in green buildings,” said Carey, who was named this year to the USGBC’s Board of Directors.

About NYPA:
NYPA uses no tax money or state credit. It finances its operations through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity. It is the nation’s largest state-owned electric utility, with 18 generating facilities in various parts of the state and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines.


2 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks for your comment. Please keep us posted–or better yet, use FacilityBlog as one way to release your announcement.

  2. I totally agree with you that any new electric energy should be “clean” energy. Living on the other side of the Niagara River and St. Lawrence Seaway we have reaped
    some of the benefits of water power here. What has baffled me is the fact that between the 2 countries we operate 15 Locks, yet none of the potential of generating electrical power via the Locks has been utilised. Instead, we spend huge sums of money on developing Nuclear Power Stations which, due to the needs of cooling reactors continually add heat to our water sources as well as heat released to the atmosphere. And we wonder how come the ice is melting in the Artic? Add to this the coal-fired generating stations on both sides of the border. In short, we have the finger on a self-destruct button
    Therefore, this foolishness is deadly and must stop,the sooner the better.
    The after effects of air pollution is showing up in the cancer Centres where an increasing number of people are diagnosed with lung cancer, my wife being one of them.
    Since having personally been effected by this I have it seen it as a God-given task to look for solutions, first, to generate clean power; secondly, to conserve our dwindling fossil fuels, and thirdly, that the solution can be applied on a world-wide scale.
    Other than what I mentioned at the beginning – the St. Lawrence Seaway – there are very few water driven options left in terms of location and of economical soundness to be considered worthwhile to pursue. Furthermore, only few countries have the benefits of the water resources we have been able to tap.

    Taking everything into consideration, I believe I have found the answers I was looking for in generating electrical power which meets all my objectives of:
    No pollution
    No global warming effects
    Does not use any new-renewable fuel source of any kind, incl. Nuclear
    Has world-wide applications
    Driven by a free, unlimited power source
    Does not produce waste of any kind
    Is a constant reliable power, not dependent on solar or wind conditions.
    Power output is limited only by the size of facility
    Far less costly to build than Nuclear facilities.
    It will be designed to be self sufficient, an important feature for remote locations where hook-up to a Grid System is not possible.

    I don’t want to go into all the details and features not yet mentioned. Suffice to say, it could be the answer to what is needed today.

    Of course, cheap and plentiful electricity will have major consequences for all. Looking into the future, it can reduce air pollution world-wide. Also, it will reverse the global warming process.
    It will also affect manufacturing where many coal-fired boilers can be changed over to electric. Electric home heating can again be an alternative. Railway transportation can be electrified.
    Yes, indeed, indirectly it can have an enormous impact.

    I am in the process of making an arrangement with a University abroad which specialises in developing power generating possibilities. I hope to
    have this arrangment in place soon.
    To avoid any problem, I do not intent to reveal the nature of this
    invention. Once development will proceed, a joint statement may be forthcoming.

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