BDC
Summary
A broad coalition of state legislators, labor leaders, and environmental advocates held a press conference at the State Capitol calling on Governor Hochul and the State Legislature to include $200 million in the FY2026 budget for Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) at SUNY campuses and municipal utilities.
Speakers highlighted the urgent opportunity to fund shovel-ready clean energy infrastructure projects at campuses including University at Buffalo, University at Albany, Stony Brook University, SUNY Headquarters and SUNY Purchase, and to help the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities begin its transition to a TEN. The $200 million in funding would put people to work immediately, reduce campus emissions, and provide scalable models for clean heating and cooling infrastructure across the state.
Speakers also called attention to the importance of supporting communities like Jamestown, where the local public utility is ready to begin its transition to a TEN—paving the way for municipal-owned clean energy solutions in rural and upstate regions. TENS are also a platform for renewable power generation and energy storage from intermittent sources, and for getting benefits from waste heat. With wide-scale building electrification and other factors leading to greater demand for electricity, TENs will reduce draws from the grid, freeing up capacity for other users.
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