NY New Snow Gun Program

[Jully]

I'd be interested in learning about how low e guns actually do help the electrical grid, if at all. The grids where most ski areas are can't be particularly robust (I know in western Maine they aren't).

In Maine at least, brown outs and other forms of grid strain have been a problem in the summer months the last few years I was in Maine. I'd never heard of anything similar in the winter, but I can't imagine how much power Sunday River used when running a couple hundred traditional guns + lifts + lodges. I imagine there has got to be some benefit to the electrical infrastructure with SR now using a fraction of that power (even accounting for the increased # of guns they can now run its still less air and similar water, I think).

I have zero to do with the electrical grid though, so I'd be interested in the thoughts of someone who knows more than me.

 

[Smellytele]

50 cents here, 50 cents there, it all adds up after awhile.

 

[benski]

Since the government does not use a large scale program like cap and trade or carbon taxes, to limit energy usage it is limited to using numerous small scale programs that target one part of the energy system at a time, in this case snow guns. The energy saving from switching to low e guns is huge so it could very well be the cheapest way to cut the states energy usage.

 

[benski]

Also are these loans or grants? I know the energy savings are enough to cover the cost of the snow guns after a year or two so NYS could get there money back quickly.

 

[cdskier]

It isn't a loan.

However I'm actually a bit wrong on my earlier statement about how much potentially comes out of a taxpayer's pocket for this program. This is funded by NYSERDA. Only 2% of NYSERDA's overall budget comes out of the NY state budget. The bulk of their budget funding comes from utility surcharge assessments and renewable energy credit proceeds. If you dive even further into how each function within NYSERDA is funded, the "Energy Efficiency" programs are funded over 99% by the Utility Surcharge assessments. So this snow-gun replacement program is funded via the money generated from Utility surcharges (which realistically means you're indirectly paying for it out of your utility bill).

 

[AdironRider]

Its just semantics. It just moves the tax from your house to your electric bill. It is still a tax, that you pay, being used to fund ski areas.