Transitioning to Clean Energy: The Success of Solar Tompkins and HeatSmart in New York State

Around 2010, when the threat of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” was looming as a possibility for the Southern Tier of New York State, environmental activists across the region kicked into high gear. Community education and information meetings, research and legal investigations, spatial analysis and listening tours, legal and environmental advisors, creative protests, and late-night meetings with elected officials—all this, and more, led in late 2014 to the successful banning of high-volume hydraulic hydrofracking in New York State.

While the ban, alone, was a great accomplishment, tens of thousands of people across the state were also galvanized in their commitment to clean energy as a result. We knew what we didn’t want: fossil fuel dependence with its concomitant threats to our climate, air, and water. But we also had our sights on the future: what do we want our energy future to look like, and how can we say YES to that?

For starters, more solar installations, and heat pump alternatives to conventional furnaces.

In 2013 and 2014, a program called Solar Tompkins focused on the Towns of Caroline, Danby, and Dryden in Tompkins County. The goal of the program was to provide information and education about how solar energy was a viable source of electricity in Central New York, an area that many people associate with cold and dreary weather. Solar Tompkins organizers worked to identify vendors who might provide better deals on equipment and installation of solar panels if the purchases were made collectively, in bulk. Solar Tompkins was in a position to be the compiler of these orders. In the first year, 110 households joined the program. When the program expanded to all of Tompkins County in the second year, that number more than tripled.

Solar Tompkins, with the buy-in from early-adopters, provided convincing neighbor-to-neighbor proof that, indeed, solar could now be a very viable option for electricity generation in upstate New York. Mission accomplished, and the ball was rolling.

Across New York State, in fact, many communities have embraced solar power in residential settings. This animation shows the increase in solar installations between 2000 and 2021. Statewide, residential installations shot up from 61 MW at the start of 2013 to nearly 160 MW at the close of 2014.