Check-Plus: Upstate Montessori School Earns Energy-Efficiency Honors

Relative to less-clunkily named programs such as LEED and Energy Star, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority -- or NYSERDA, if you're into (relative) brevity -- doesn't get a lot of attention. And yet NYSERDA's recent awarding of its 17th High Performance Building plaque, to the Woodland Hill Montessori School in the Albany suburb of Rensselaer, casts a spotlight on NYSERDA's very deserving incentive programs. Yes, it's kind of a dim spotlight -- no offense to Montessori schools in upstate towns, but CNN isn't breaking into its regular programming to deliver this news -- but the efficiency achievements at Woodland Hill and some continued good work on the part of NYSERDA both deserve a look.

While NYSERDA hasn't handed out many plaques, the program has, by its own account, "given more than $92 million in federal and State funds to provide assistance for projects affecting more than 137 million square feet of building space in New York State" since 1999 as part of its New Construction Program, and gave Woodland Hill Montessori School $28,000 in assistance as part of its High-Performance Buildings Program, which has over 900 projects active throughout the state. The long story short, here, seems to be that the incentive program works, even when it's not doling out seven-figure sums. (More proof: the existence of companies that specialize in helping developers qualify for NYSERDA incentives) Steve wrote about NYSERDA's Smart Loan Program back in 2008, and everything you need to know about the specifics of the program is on the other side of that link, but even as New York State faces down a scary deficit, it's reassuring to see that NYSERDA is still handing out funds to worthy projects -- $28,000 is a small price to pay, after all, considering the far-reaching benefits of a building that functions as efficiently as Woodland Hill Montessori School.

Woodland Hill added 11,000 square feet of space -- a couple of classrooms, a gym, conference rooms, the usual school stuff -- with the help of that NYSERDA grant, and incorporated a host of energy-efficient elements both to the newly added space and the older building. The school's new roof and wall insulation, energy-efficient windows, high-efficiency lighting and demand-controlled ventilation are expected to save as much energy annually as is consumed by three single-family homes in a year. Again, not that bad for $28k, and certainly not that bad for a program that still flies largely under the radar.