There’s over 5 BESS projects being considered in Ulster County and the greater Hudson Valley region. Watch and hear from Dr. Jefferey Seidman, Vassar College, and Dan Murray, Energy Safety Consultant, and retired Chief in Charge of HazMat at FDNY; they will discuss how BESS systems work, why they’re needed, and what they mean for our communities.

This recording is from NYCP’s renewable energy speaker series, Monday, March 9, from 12 to 1 P.M., with our special guests Claudia Villar-Leeman from NY-BEST and Cora Stryker from Bright Saver.

Claudia is the Senior Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST). She explained how our electricity grid works, why energy storage is critical to supporting reliability while keeping electricity bills down, and recent initiatives to support storage in the state, including a recent bill that would have large BESS projects reviewed by the Department of Public Service: S.5506 (Kavanagh)/A.8378 (Levenberg).

Cora Stryker is the cofounder of Bright Saver, the first and only nonprofit dedicated to making plug-in solar accessible to all Americans. Cora explained plug-in (“balcony”) solar, told us about the Solar Up Now New York (SUNNY Act). We also learned how to encourage our legislators to support policies that build a cleaner Empire State.