Purchase Joins Renewable Energy Consortium
Consortium will provide cost savings on renewable energy and reduce the campus carbon footprint.
Purchase College is a member of the NY Higher Education Large Scale Renewable Energy (NY HE LSRE) consortium which represents one of the state’s largest aggregated purchases of renewable energy to date.
“By taking a cooperative approach to the purchase of renewable energy, these campuses will be better able to meet their sustainability goals and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels,” says SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson. “The consortium provides a cost-effective way of achieving campus carbon neutrality, with the power to transform the regional renewable energy market. It also creates important partnership among New York’s higher education institutions.”
“This innovative approach to reducing the cost of renewable energy will help us reach our sustainability goals and strengthen our school’s reputation as one of the greenest campuses in the nation,” says Interim President Dennis Craig. “By joining this partnership, Purchase College looks forward to further reducing our carbon footprint.”
The consortium will use its collective purchasing power to develop new renewable projects by contracting for renewable energy at scale. The process will normalize the cost of electricity for the individual colleges and reduce volatility in each institution’s energy budget.
The NY HE LSRE process will eventually expand to all 64 SUNY campuses, which will help advance Governor Cuomo’s statewide goal of having 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040.
SUNY has already reduced its carbon footprint from 1.02 million metric tons in 1990 to 770,000 metric tons in 2017, decreasing its greenhouse emissions by nearly 25 percent. The reductions in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions come in spite of a 50 percent increase in the system’s total square footage.
Technologies such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, biogas, biofuel, and fuel cells, are expected to be viable sources. The RFP is expected to be issued later this year, with operations to begin as soon as December 2020.
The following colleges are participating in the NY HE LSRE consortium:
SUNY Campuses
- University at Albany
- Binghamton University
- SUNY Cobleskill
- SUNY Cortland
- SUNY Delhi
- SUNY Empire State College
- SUNY ESF
- SUNY Fredonia
- SUNY Geneseo
- Hudson Valley Community College
- SUNY Maritime
- SUNY New Paltz
- SUNY Oneonta
- Onondaga Community College
- SUNY Oswego
- Purchase College
Private Institutions
- Bard College
- Cornell University
- Ithaca College
- Skidmore College