NYSEG announces $400k economic grant for Binghamton University

NYSEG (New York State Electric and Gas) announced a $400,000 economic development grant for Binghamton University at a news conference held Thursday, April 26, in the University’s new Smart Energy Building at the Innovative Technologies Complex.

This latest award brings the total in NYSEG grants to $1.2 million, provided to support three Binghamton University projects under the company’s economic development electric infrastructure programs.

Following tours of the Smart Energy Building, Carl A. Taylor, MBA ’98, president and chief executive officer of NYSEG and Rochester Gas & Electric, and Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger spoke about the building’s efficiencies that were enabled by the most recent grant.

“I welcome and thank NYSEG for its contribution to the energy infrastructure and efficiency of our Smart Energy Building,” Stenger said. “We’re doing wonderful work here in what is probably the most energy-efficient building on the campus to date. It was a fun building to build and some of its characteristics with its open spaces make it a fun building to be in as well.”

Designed almost entirely by campus staff, the Smart Energy Building includes many energy-efficient features, including a way to capture rain from the roof and another to reuse air from laboratory equipment to heat the building, Stenger said.

“As an alum,” Taylor said, “I’ve seen the progress that Binghamton University has made in the community and it has been astounding to me to see this major growth. I want to express our thanks for being part of this. NYSEG is proud to continue this collaboration.

“I look at us as pillars of the community here for the long haul,” Taylor added. “We need to make sure we take care of the community we’re part of and this is one of the ways we’re becoming a leader in the energy industry and helping our customers become more efficient. The efficiencies of this building are astounding. I’ve just seen furnaces that would fit in most people homes heating and cooling this entire faculty.”

Taylor noted that he started with NYSEG in 1987, and his first job was on the Smart Energy Building’s exact property, just up the hill a bit. “Now, Binghamton University has totally engulfed that building.

Campuses were not always eligible to receive NYSEG grants like the one announced today, Stenger said. “It was not something that was part of the formula for a utility company to provide this kind of support, but in 2011, with help from NYSEG and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, MA ’83, we were able to convince the Public Service Commission to include universities in the energy grant program. This most recent $400,000 allowed us to add equipment we probably could not have afforded without it.”

“We hope these funds that assist in capital investments will attract new businesses to the area and to stay in New York state,” Taylor said.

Binghamton’s $70 million Smart Energy Building opened in fall 2017, to accommodate research and development initiatives for the departments of chemistry and physics. Laboratories, classrooms and offices allow faculty and students to work side by side with industry scientists and engineers to create new energy technologies, and help to maintain and expand the regional workforce.

During the design and construction phase of the Smart Energy Building had an economic impact of $90.7 million on the Broome/Tioga region and supported 915 local jobs, including 366 direct construction jobs.