If the lights are on in the Saint Gobain building, the odds are pretty high that somebody is working.

Valley Forge, Pa. – When it comes to manufacturing and distributing building materials, Saint-Gobain has a reputation of being the world leader.  Later today, the company will be recognized by the EPA as being the leader in reducing carbon footprint and protecting the environment.

A participant in the EPA’s ENERGY-STAR program since 2005, Saint-Gobain will collect the award of ENERGY-STAR Partner of the Year at an award ceremony in Washington D.C. The honor will distinguish Saint-Gobain for outstanding energy management and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Out of 17,000 participants in the EPA’s program that was started in 1992, Saint-Gobain is the only manufacturer of glass containers or fiber glass insulation that has won.

According to Saint-Gobain Energy Manager Brad Runda, the path to a green working environment began with educating employees to eliminate wastefulness. Runda said that the idea is to treat the work environment the same way you would at home from a day to day basis.

“We began making an effort in offices and in manufacturing make sure unused lights, computer monitors and other equipment were turned off when not being used,” said Runda.

Runda also said using the right technology and equipment for the application is important as well. One example is switching from HID to fluorescent lighting, or vice versa, depending on the need of the room. Acknowledging that the majority of the energy consumption was through manufacturing, Runda said that it was important to switch to less power consuming equipment and of course, not being wasteful when using resources in the factory.

So far, the plan has worked out well for the company. In 2009, Saint-Gobain of North America was able to reduce their energy intensity by 2.2 percent. According to the company, this is the equivalent to the energy needed to produce nearly 486 million glass bottles or enough fiber glass insulation for more than 100,000 U.S. homes. Their reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere last year was more than 70,000 tons.

Saint Gobain delegate Bill Seiberlich said that he hoped the award would inspire others to take the step in reducing their energy usage and harmful emissions.

“An award like this is good for morale and helps promote saving energy with the public,” Seiberlich said. “Whoever it be, our competitors or the public, we encourage others to do likewise.”

In a statement issued by the EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, Gina McCarthy, the same sentiments were echoed for Saint-Gobain’s potential for rubbing off on others.

“Saint-Gobain is leading the fight against climate change through greater energy efficiency,” said McCarthy. “Saint-Gobain’s robust energy management program is a model for others and affirms that energy efficiency is our most cost-effective climate strategy.”

Some of Saint-Gobain’s products include: self-cleaning windows, photovoltaic glass, smart insulation systems and water supply systems.

Chet Culver, Chairman of the Governors Wind energy Coalition is leading the charge to push Congress towards minimum wind energy requirements.

An assembly of 29 governors is urging Washington to enact Federal legislation that would mandate electric companies to obtain a minimum of 10 percent of the power they provide through renewable energy within two years.  The proposal, allegedly designed to stimulate job creation as well as climate reform, was presented today by letters to the White House and to Congress from the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition.

“Right now, this is about jobs,” said Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri (R).

“We don’t want these things to get caught up in the broader debate and discussion [i.e. global warming] that will only slow us down,” added Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D), chairman of the bipartisan Coalition, which includes the governors of 29 states.

With national attention focused on health reform proposals, the group is concerned that the Federal government has become sidetracked from the agenda of getting Americans back to work.

“Congressional action on the energy bill seems to have stalled,” said Carcieri in a statement. “It is our hope that these recommendations — and the national bipartisan consensus they represent — will advance the energy deliberations now under way in Congress.”

Other recommendations by the governors include:

• Developing new interstate electric transmission system infrastructure to facilitate access to these resources nationwide.
• Greater federal support for coastal and off-shore wind farms; and
• Extending the Treasury Department’s financing program that offers cash up front instead of the Investment Tax Credit, as well as a renewable energy production tax credit.

Senator Chuck Grassley, Iowa (R), thinks the Governors' joint proposal sets unrealistic objectives.

“People want more renewable energy. Congress can’t ask for a clearer signal for what works politically than what’s working at the state level.” says Reid Detchon, executive director of the Energy Future Coalition, told the Christian Science Monitor.  ”These governors coming forward like this is just one more indicator of public sentiment in favor of stronger requirements for renewable energy.”

Congress does not unanimously subscribe to the notion that the Coalition’s mandate presents realistic objectives. Indeed, Culver has not convinced his own State’s senior senator that the mandate can be reached by 2012.

While Iowan Senator Chuck Grassley (R) claims to have supported renewable energy portfolios in the past, he believes the Coalition has bitten off more than can be chewed.  “Probably not ten-percent by 2012,” Grassley says, “I don’t think that that’s possible but I surely think 15% by 2020 is possible.”

In other words, next year the oil companies will be required to buy 12.6 billion gallons of conventional corn ethanol, but because tax payers are giving them $5.85 billion they’ll consume 1.4 billion more than required. That works out to $4.18 per extra gallon.

As I’ve written before, having the tax credit on top of the RFS is like paying drivers to obey the speed limit. (Tip of the hat to Rapier for the analogy.) Some in the industry may be inclined to point to the additional 1.5 billion gallons as a justification for the tax credit, but the price tag should make that argument just silly. Taxpayers have been subsidizing the corn ethanol industry far too long at the expense of developing cleaner, more renewable biofuels.

Plus the FAPRI study also points out that the tax credit is leading to higher prices for corn and other grains–$0.18 per bushel of corn, $0.28 for soy, and $0.15 for wheat. And lest anyone argue that the tax credit is a good way of supporting farmer income, think about this: if we gave farmers an extra $0.15, $0.28, and $015 per bushel for every single one of the corn, soy, and wheat bushels they’ll grow next year, it would cost just $3.56 billion. And we’d still have enough of the tax credit money left over to subsidies the extra 1.4 billion gallons to the tune of $1.64.

The FAPRI study’s analysis of how the tax credit effects commodity crop prices also confirms the underlying economic truth of indirect land-use change. Higher prices for commodities mean that farmers here in the US and around the world will want to grow more. In those parts of the world where its cheaper to increase production by bringing new land into cultivation than increasing yields on existing lands, that’s going to lead to land-use change. Not surprisingly, EPA’s analysis, which uses the FAPRI model, finds that the emissions from this land-use change is one of the largest sources of emissions associated with corn ethanol.

Yesterday, Growth Energy had the audacity to argue that the tax credit lowers the price of gasoline. It’s a cynical, shell-game claim, meant to earn support from drivers who are actually subsidizing this well established industry every April 15.

The simple fact of the matter is the current corn ethanol tax credit is a huge waste of money. We don’t need an additional 1.4 billion gallons of corn ethanol, or the higher prices for grains and more deforestation that come with it. And we sure as heck don’t need to be spending $4.18 per gallon to get it. The corn ethanol tax credit (and the biodiesel tax credit too) needs to end!

We have to be smarter about how we use our tax dollars. NRDC has proposed a greener biofuel tax credit that encourage competition among the technologies and only pay for real performance. It’s time to transition from corn ethanol’s pollution and pork to a new generation of more sustainable biofuels that brings us closer to real energy independence.

Wind turbines may spin on American soil but many of them carry the "Made in China" label.

Washington D.C. – The war between members of the U.S. Senate and wind energy investors rages on as lawmakers try to suspend government appropriations earmarked for privately operated wind-energy projects. The complaint, raised by the Committee for Energy and Natural Resources, is that investors are funneling an overwhelming percentage of government funding toward Asian manufacturers, rather than using American companies.

With nearly $2 billion already spent on wind farm projects, several senators are leading the charge against stimulus funds that are suspected of being used for manufacturing wind mills in China that will eventually be used in the U.S. The purpose of the wind stimulus project, proposed by the Obama administration in early 2009, was to help expand the United States goal of producing wind generated energy, as well as create jobs across the country. Now, committee members are investigating the exact nature of the spending so far.

According to a report conducted by Investigative Reporting Workshop, 73 percent of the $1.9 billion in stimulus money that has distributed since Sept. 1, 2009 has been invested in foreign companies.

One particular project, a wind farm in west Texas slated to receive $450 million in government funds, has become the focal point of the debate. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), has been outspoken in his skepticism of the project since its inception last year. Schumer claims that US Renewable Energy Group (US-REG), Texas-based Cielo Wind Power and Chinese Shenyang Power Group, all responsible for financing the venture, so far have not relied on U.S. manufacturing. Instead Schumer claims the investment will provide 3,000 jobs for Shenyang and 330 for Americans -300 of those U.S. jobs being temporary.

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) has hostile words for American companies using government grants to manufacture products abroad.

“It is a no-brainer that stimulus funds should only go to projects that create jobs in the United States rather than overseas,” Schumer’s office said in a statement. “These wind projects have a lot of merit, but the manufacturing should be happening here, not in China.”

In a statement released by US-REG, managing partner Cappy McGarr countered the charges by stating that his company intends to manufacture a minimum of 70 percent of the wind turbines for the $1.5 billion project domestically.  McGarr said that it is incorrect to assume that hundreds of additional jobs created aside from the direct construction and operation of the Texas plant would be outside the U.S.

The U.S. Energy Department released a statement saying that they do not support blocking stimulus payments and if projects that use foreign-manufactured turbines are cut off, even temporarily, the result could be immediate layoffs for American workers.

The current American Recovery and Reinvestment Act requires government run and financed stimulus projects to rely on American manufactured goods. Where the bill lacks coverage for protecting American jobs is in regards to privately operated projects, like the US-REG venture, that do not fall under the same guidelines.

Senate Committee members are pushing for new legislation that would require private project venturers to create jobs in the United States if they are taking advantage of federal grants. Under current law, the government has no jurisdiction to intercede by withholding grants even if the companies relying on government incentives perform all of the manufacturing abroad.

The Department of Energy has made a couple of unprecedented moves on efficiency in the last few months that have gone unnoticed by all but the most die-hard efficiency advocates.

First, as my colleague Noah Long explained, DOE has begun to actually enforce mandatory minimum appliance standards!  Crazy, right? First they announced about $3 million in fines on shower head manufacturers for failure to submit certification reports.  These are the first ever fines levied under the federal standards program, and further evidence of the new attitude about enforcement at DOE.  They then followed up by fining an air conditioner manufacturer $1.2 million for failing to certify.  I am guessing these and other manufacturers will pay a bit more attention to compliance and certification from now on.

Second, DOE issued its annual report to Congress recently, and the big news is that DOE has officially put development of national TV energy efficiency standards on its schedule.  We had been expecting this development, since DOE announced last fall that it would begin a TV proceeding “soon” in its notice repealing the outdated federal test method.

Standards for TV sets are long overdue. Congress gave DOE authority to consider TV standards in 1989, but this is the first time they’ve been considered federally.  Of course, it’s doubtful the feds would even be looking at TV standards absent the California Energy Commission (CEC) standards enacted last year and heroic efforts to develop and support those standards by the Commissioners and CEC staff through support led by NRDC’s Noah Horowitz, Pacific Gas & Electric and the rest of the CA investor owned utilities.

The federal schedule calls for completion of the federal rulemaking in June 2013.  Assuming that Consumer Electronics Association is not successful at derailing the federal process — you can bet they will try — that means federal standards would take effect in May 2016, at the earliest.  In the 3.5 years between the state standards implementation date and the earliest potential federal implementation date, about 20 million TV sets will be sold that will last 7 to 10 years.  Even if the feds do all we would want, there is still much value in staying the course in the states.

I think this DOE means business, don’t you?

During his trip to Savannah, Obama shared a lunch with a few of the locals.

Savannah, Ga. – Willing homeowners across America may soon be eligible for rebates for making energy efficient improvements to their houses, according to President Barack Obama. Standing in front of the student body and faculty at Savannah Technical College, Obama laid out the general groundwork for implementing his $6 billion HOMESTAR program, commonly referred to as the “Cash for Caulkers” program.

Obama said the plan is focused on providing rebates for consumers that purchase energy saving, home improvement upgrades such as insulation and water heaters. Under the program, vendors ranging from small independent contractors to nationwide home improvement chain stores will offer the on-the-spot rebates that will range between $1000 and $1500. The federal government will then reimburse the vendor for the rebate.

This program would also reward homeowners who have energy audits conducted and then follow through with the necessary improvements to reduce their energy consumption. Audited homes that are improved by cutting their energy costs by at least 20 percent can receive up to $3000 with the possibility of a larger rebate for any reduction over 20 percent.

Obama praised the Savannah Tech’s initiative called the YouthBuild program, geared toward pursuing energy efficient business practices through their specialized classes and training. He also drew parallels between the school’s energy education program and the White House’s current goals.

“In terms of energy usage, 40 percent of it goes into our homes and our building,” Obama said during the speech. “So as we’re looking for additional initiatives to spur hiring, I think we ought to embrace what’s happening on this campus. I think we ought to embrace the incredible potential that awaits us across America in clean energy.”

Cutting residential energy consumption and providing relief to homeowners who would partake in the plan, was not the only item on the agenda. The other task at hand for the White House, according to Obama, is attempting to provide jobs for American’s who will assist in weatherizing these houses.

Obama referred to manufacturers and contractors being ready to work and take on the possible increase in demand for labor, and even joked at one point in his speech about outsourcing.

“It turns out that energy-efficient windows or insulation, those things are products that are almost exclusively manufactured right here in the United States of America. It’s very hard to ship windows from China,” Obama said. “So that creates work for small businesses and contractors like some of the folks who are here today. And obviously construction work that’s been as hard hit as anything during this recession, so you’ve got a lot of skilled contractors ready to go.”

The White House has yet to propose the plan to Congress and several details are yet to be determined, such as its duration and costs.

K.R. Sridhar shows 60 Minutes the heart of the Bloom Box- stacks of thin fuel cells. He says that two of them would be enough to provide energy for the average American home.

What Is That Box in Your Backyard?

That is the question you may be hearing pretty soon. Bloom Energy a company based in Sunnyvale, California, has created a power plant roughly the size of a refrigerator. They are hoping that every home in America will have its own Bloom Box cheaply producing clean energy within ten years.

In their opinion, the Bloom Box will revolutionize energy with its “power plant in a box.” K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, appeared on CBS’s 60 Minutes to describe his company’s device. On Wednesday, Mr. Sridhar is expected to make a major public announcement in Silicon Valley unveiling the Bloom Box.

The Bloom Box is a collection of fuel cells, similar to skinny batteries that rely on a mixture of oxygen and fuel to create electricity. Better yet, it has no emissions.

How does it really work?

Although all the details haven’t been disclosed, the Bloom Box seems to operate using a solid-oxide fuel cell technology. The building blocks of Bloom Box are rows of fuel cells.

Front and back images of the fuel cells in the Bloom Box, the green and black inks are two solvents designed by Sridhar to chemically convert fuel into energy.

These cells are made of ordinary beach sand baked into diskette-sized ceramic squares which are painted with black and green ink. The ink is the “secret sauce” created by Sridhar –a former rocket scientist-which has the capability of cleanly transforming fuel into electricity.

Each fuel cell has the potential to power one light bulb. The fuel cells are sandwiched with cheap metal alloy plates and stacked into brick-sized towers.

The fuel cell stacks are housed in a unit roughly the size of a refrigerator. Oxygen is drawn into one side of the unit, and fossil or renewable fuel is fed into the other side. Fuel and oxygen combine within the cell and produce a chemical reaction that creates energy. Its creator claims that this creation arises without burning, combustion, or the necessity of power lines.

It would take roughly 64 stacks of fuel cells to power a small business like Starbucks.

Sridhar developed the Bloom Box concept after creating a device for NASA designed to produce oxygen on Mars. NASA scrapped the venture, but Sridhar tweaked his project by feeding oxygen into his fuel cells rather than using them to create oxygen. Nearly $400 million and 10 years later Sridhar has the Bloom Box.

Are these boxes really the wave of the future?

It is probably too early to tell. On a corporate level, the Bloom Boxes are already functioning on a limited basis Sridhar claims. Google was their first customer. FedEx, Walmart, Staples, and Ebay have also shelled out approximately $700,000 to $800,000 per box.

The boxes purchased by the corporate giants require fuel, such as natural gas, but half as much as they normally would require.

Ebay installed five Bloom Boxes nine months ago, and they fuel about 15 percent of its San Jose campus, said CEO John Donahoe in the 60 Minutes interview. “It’s been very successful thus far.  They have done what they said they would do” Mr. Donahoe says, adding that the company has saved $100,000 in electricity costs already.

The Bloom Box is designed to replace the existing power grid. But making the Bloom Box practical on a consumer level is a whole other matter.

Michael Kanellos is hopeful that Bloom Boxes can work on the consumer level, but skeptical.

Michael Kanellos, editor of Greentech Media, which covers the clean energy market, warns that “people have been trying to develop fuel cells since the 1830’s. But they’re not easy. They’re like the divas of industrial equipment. You have to put platinum inside there. You have to put zirconium.”

Cost is a huge factor. “It needs to be cheaper than wind. It needs to be cheaper than solar.” Kanellos says. “Cost is always a concern with fuel cells, as is round-the-clock, 24-7 functionality.”

Sridhar says he eventually wants to deliver Bloom Boxes to consumers “for under $3,000.”

For now, however, the company has shrouded itself in secrecy. Outside of the 60 Minutes interview, Sridhar has refused to meet with the press. Even their website bloomenergy.com posts little more than a cryptic video without divulging much if anything about the corporation.

The Bloom Energy “secret society” strategy has been designed either to hide serious flaws or to heighten the buzz.

Sridhar seems ebullient as he looks to the future. “I want a Bloom Box next to the [White House] organic vegetable garden,” he says on 60 Minutes.

The U.S. retained its lead with the most wind power capacity, followed by Germany, China and Spain. (Courtesy GWEC)

The Global Wind Energy Council, a group largely responsible for tracking wind energy around the world, published these statistics earlier today. The results of their research indicate that wind energy increased 31% globally from 120.5 GW to almost 157.9 GW in 2009.

China’s focus on wind energy results from its stated dedication toward reducing CO2 emissions that are produced from more traditional fuel sources, while meeting the demands of its ever growing energy and economic needs.

China’s increase in its wind energy capabilities accounted for more than one third of the 39.1% increases around the world.

“The continued rapid growth of wind power despite the financial crisis and economic downturn is testament to the inherent attractiveness of the technology, which is clean, reliable and quick to install,” according to Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the GWEC.

The largest contingency of wind energy sits in the European Union which collectively produces 76.1 GW of wind power per year. Spain was at the forefront of Europe’s 2009 wind energy developers by increasing their production 2.45 GW which reflected 6.6% of the world’s growth.

China leads the list of the top 10 countries with newly installed wind power in 2009. (Courtesy GWEC)

The United States remains the largest individual producer of wind energy with about 35 GW, nearly a 10 GW increase from a year prior. The domestic increase in wind energy came as a surprise to financial analysts who predicted that the recession would force the U.S. to cut its existing wind plants. Rather than scaling back, the United States was the second largest developer of new wind energy last year.

Diane Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, attributed the surprising trend to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Under the Act, $68 billion dollars was apportioned to various renewable energy sources. However, Bode cautioned, “U.S. wind turbine manufacturing is down compared to last year’s levels, and needs long-term policy certainty and market pull in order to grow.”

If the 2009 trends continue, China will be the largest developer of wind energy in a few years. Their present goal is to produce 150 GW annually by the year 2020. That is a greater quantity of wind power than the world collectively produced at the start of last year. While their target may sound highly ambitious, at their current rate of growth, China will reach its wind energy goal well before the end of the decade.

Vancouver’s civic leaders believe that the athlete’s village built for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and the planned neighborhood that will surround it, will be one of the very greenest neighborhoods in North America.  I am inclined to agree.

The village is the central parcel in a larger planned redevelopment of a section of the city’s old industrial waterfront called, somewhat awkwardly, Southeast False Creek.  When the Olympics and Paralympics are finished, the village will become a mixed-use community called Millennium Water, which sounds a lot more marketable to me.

I haven’t visited the site, but I have sifted through virtual reams of information about it, and I have paid particular attention to its plans and progress for some time now because Southeast False Creek is participating in the LEED-ND pilot.  (It hasn’t been evaluated yet but the development is aiming for a gold level award.)  The city’s summary information sheet explains the project’s goals:

“While maintaining heritage ties to the past, SEFC is being planned as a model sustainable development based on environmental, social and economic principles where people will live, work, play, and learn. SEFC will be a mixed-use community, with a focus on residential housing. This complete neighbourhood will ensure that goods and services are within walking distance and that housing and jobs are linked by transit.”

The 80-acre site’s mostly mid-rise buildings will provide ample density to support retail and walkability while still leaving 26 acres available for park land, including playgrounds and space for community gardening.  There will also be an elementary school and new civic center.  Some of the site’s historic buildings (notably including the Salt Building, shown in the photos) will be preserved, along with other reminders of its historic past.  Transportation options will include rapid transit, a “skytrain,” a streetcar, multiple bus lines, three new greenways with cycling facilities and, of course, a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere.  The site also needed and received extensive brownfield remediation.

Most of the development’s buildings will qualify for a  LEED-gold building certification (in addition to the LEED-ND goal for the project as a whole).  One of them has been designated as a “net zero” building that will have no net carbon emissions.   It will be converted to 64 homes for seniors after the Games.  And the developer is aiming for a LEED-platinum rating for the community center that will be the village’s focal point during the Games and the most publicly visible of the neighborhood’s buildings afterward.

Southeast False Creek/Millennium Water will also sport the city’s first renewable district heating system, which will provide heat and hot water to all the neighborhood’s buildings, including those in the Olympic village. It will be the first time in North America that heat recovered from wastewater will provide a primary source of energy for an urban neighborhood. The wastewater technology will be supplemented by solar hot water.

The city began planning development of the site in 1997 and committed to a vision of sustainability in 1999.  Eventually it will be home to 16,000 residents.  Close to 3,000 will be housed there for the Games.

The environmental accomplishments and goals of the Olympic village (officially Village A, since there is a second athlete’s Village B in Whistler, BC, where downhill events are being held) are summarized in an overview on the Olympics’ official site.  In addition to those mentioned above, they include ecological restoration of the waterfront; reintroduction of intertidal marine habitat and indigenous vegetation, and extensive green stormwater infrastructure.  As shown in the images, most of the buildings will have green roofs.  Other laudable elements include accessible design, job training and procurement for inner-city residents, and impressive (and sustainable) public art, including traditional and contemporary works by Inuit, Métis, and other First Nations indigenous artists from across Canada.

The village’s sustainability features are seen by the Games as part of a larger goal of sustainability throughout the Olympic venues and events, and by the city as consistent with its’ leaders vision of becoming “the world’s greenest city.”

As with any large development, especially infill and especially one receiving subsidies in the context of a recession, the project has not been without controversy.  This is well-documented on the Web and was succinctly summarized by Jonathan Hiskes on Grist.  The project was planned to be financed largely by Millennium Water’s investors and recouped by them after the Games as its units were sold.  But a major source of the developer’s capital collapsed with other financial institutions and the city had to come to the project’s financial rescue (to be repaid when the development sells).  There were also the usual construction problems and cost overruns.  The financial squeeze meant that, unfortunately, some of the project’s Phase I affordable housing had to be scaled back.  In addition, some Vancouverites have long resisted the idea of the city’s hosting the Games at all, and the village became a bit of a rallying point for the opposition.

But now the village has been completed and was handed over to the city on schedule, in November.  It has received glowing reviews not just from environmental writers but also from real estate observers who believe Millennium Water will be a huge commercial success when it is handed back to the developer (see, for example, here and here).  Based on what we can see, that’s hard to argue with.  I can’t wait to see it for myself.

Here are two really good videos about the project.  The first models the development’s progress from start to finish with very cool animation, and has an awesome soundtrack.  (Someone please tell me who that is; if you prefer Beethoven, by the way, go here.)  And the second provides a montage of the project’s construction with an excellent explanatory narrative and first-rate visual production.  Highly recommended:

For a short commercial for Millennium Water, try this one.  Let the Games begin!

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the ‘Great Appliance Swap Out’ will be running through February 21^st, or until the $17 million in federal funds being granted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are used up.

“This program will provide a tremendous incentive for consumers all across New York to reduce their energy consumption while providing an important stimulus to our economy, and helping to meet the State’s ‘45 by 15′ clean energy goal,” New York Governor David Paterson said.

The state is learning from the mistakes of ‘Cash for Clunkers’, a federal program for enticing people to trade in their old gas guzzling automobile, which ran out of funds very quickly.

“Whenever someone downloads an application or someone calls up and has an application downloaded for them, we have a real-time counter on the website, so we’re really trying to avoid what happened this summer with cash for clunkers, where they go to buy an appliance and there’s no money left,”  said Mark Michalski from NYSERDA.

The appliances qualifying for the rebates are as follows:

• Refrigerators: $75 ($105 with a receipt certifying that the old appliance was recycled)

• Clothes washers: $75 ($100 with recycling recipt)

• Freezers: $50 ($75 with recycling receipt)

• Dishwashers: Rebates are only available for dishwashers when purchased as part of a three appliance package of appliances. This bundled purchase will qualify for a $500 rebate ($555 with documented recycling).

Appliances must have the ENERGY STAR® label, meaning that they are up to 30 percent more efficient than standard models on the market.

Many appliance retailers across the state are trying to capitalize off the program by assisting customers through the rebate process and having the paperwork on hand to fill out.

“It is a win-win for consumers because it will reduce the cost of big ticket energy efficient appliances and help lower utility bills for years to come,” said Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, Chair of the NY Assembly Energy Committee.

For more information, visit the Great Appliance Swap Out website.