Sustainable Finger Lakes

We won grant funding in two competitive solicitations to run pilots to overcome the barriers to getting heat pumps into low-to-moderate income LMI homes. We won a 862,560 grant from NYSERDA to work with landlords in the City and Town of Ithaca to have installers improve thermal envelopes and install air source heat pumps in up to 100 LMI rental units, using substantial subsidies from the grant for heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and electric panel upgrades. It took NYSERDA until August, 2022 to finalize a contract with us, so SFLX had to carry a new hire for the pilot on our payroll until their paperwork was finished.

Our other work running the Finger Lakes Climate Fund, Neighborhood Mini-Grants Program, and Signs of Sustainability continued as usual.

We expanded our clean energy and equity program by winning a 532,127 contract from Tompkins County through their Tompkins Community Recovery Fund in December, 2022. These funds will pay for staff to engage mobile home owners across the County who earn less than 300 of federal poverty level for their household size and offer them subsidies for heat pumps and electric panel upgrades in 50 mobile homes. We received the second largest grant in the competition.