NYSERDA - Renewable, Clean Energy, and Energy Efficient Product Manufacturing Incentive Program

Summary

Funded from the New York System Benefits Charge (SBC), this incentive program seeks to increase the manufacturing of renewable, clean, and energy efficient products in New York by providing funds to manufacturers that wish to develop or expand facilities producing eligible products. Only facilities located within the service territories of New York's major investor-owned utilities (IOUs) are eligible for funding. Eligibility is limited to renewable or clean-energy products that produce or support the production of renewable or clean electricity for delivery to the grid; energy-efficient end-use technologies that use electricity as a principal input and result in a substantial increase in the efficient use and or conservation of electricity compared to the status quo; electric storage technologies for grid-connected applications; and products incorporating renewable energy technologies as defined by the state Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). The program documents do not specifically define eligible renewable or clean energy technologies. The technologies listed above are defined as eligible renewables under the New York renewable portfolio standard (RPS).

Incremental modifications or additions to existing manufacturing lines will not be considered. In addition, products should be beyond the prototype stage and mature enough to warrant designing and building or expanding a commercial manufacturing facility. Components integral and largely specific to such products are also eligible. Heating or transportation fuel technologies, power generation projects, and materials reclamation projects are generally excluded from eligibility. Project funding will be broken down into three separate phases, each of which has different limitations.

Phase I provides money for facility and site characterization activities. Funding in this phase is limited to $75,000 and no more than 5% of the total funds requested. A 50% cost share is required for this phase, although higher levels are preferred. Site characterization activities must be completed within three months of the contract award and proposers must complete site and facility characterization studies before funding will be authorized for subsequent phases.

Phase II covers pre-production development subject to the proposer satisfying defined project milestones. No more than 20% of the total funds requested may be for pre-production development, up to a maximum of $300,000. Like Phase I, this phase also requires a 50% cost share and all approval conditions must be met before the next phase of funding will be authorized.

Phase III is a production incentive payment based on the sale of clean energy products produced at the facility as a result of enhanced production capacity attributable to work done in Phase I and Phase II. The remaining 75% of total funding is available for this phase, subject to a 75% cost share requirement and a total funding limit of $1.5 million per project. Incentive amounts will be determined according to the value of New York content of the product sales, and will take the form of up quarterly payments for up to 20 quarters (5 years) or until the full incentive has been paid. New York content includes the value of New York manufactured components plus value added to the product(s) manufactured at the facility. Proposals may request a production incentive totaling no more than 25% of the value of New York content, with smaller amounts preferred.

A total of $4.5 million is available under this program as of April 2010. Proposals will be accepted according to the deadlines below, subject to funding availability:

• Round 1: June 10, 2010
• Round 2: October 14, 2010
• Round 3: February 17, 2011

For further information, consult Program Opportunity Notice (PON) 1176 using the link at the top of this page.