Saranac Lake is a Designated Clean Energy Community

The Village of Saranac Lake is committed to building a more sustainable community. One of the ways that commitment is demonstrated is through the Village's longtime participation in NYSERDA's Clean Energy Communities Program. The initial actions taken helped the Village to be recognized as a dedicated Clean Energy Community, in 2017. By completing additional High Impact Actions and actions under the Clean Energy Community Leadership Round have helped the Village to earn additional grant award money to be used for green programming. 

High Impact Actions in Progress

As part of the CEC Leadership Round, Village leaders documented twelve completed High Impact Actions and 3,600 points since 2016 and earned the North Country's first $10,000 CEC points-based grant. This grant will be used for a project that is still TBD, but ultimately will fit within the existing steps that the Village is taking to reduce its carbon footprint. 

The Village Board took the pledge to achieve Climate Smart Communities Certification, and achieved the first of three established levels in the NYS program: Bronze Level. Learn more about this initiative on the Climate Smart Communities project page.

High Impact Actions Completed 

• Energy Code Enforcement Training- Leadership Level- The Village's Code Enforcement Officer enrolled in professional training that asseses green technologies and methods that can be applied in the construction field.
• Unified Solar Permit- Designed to streamline the approval process for installing solar arrays on residential and commercial properties.
• Solarize Community Campaign- Working within a campaign framework to promote clean energy.
• Clean Fleets- The Village has installed one electric vehicle charging station for public use and has purchased a Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle for day-to-day operations use

• Benchmarking of energy use accross Village buildings energy use in buildings. 
• LED light conversions- both linterior lights and Village-wide streetlights
• Community Campaigns - Clean Heating and Cooling and Energy Efficiency for the actions taken to educate on cold-climate ari-source heat pumps in the North Country 

Energy Performance Measures for Village Buildings 2018-2022

The benchmarking data from 2018-2022 is summarized in the charts below. For a full report on Energy Performance Measures for Village Buildings, click HERE.

* EUI expresses a building’s energy use as a function of its size or other characteristics.  EUI is expressed as energy per square foot per year.  Generally, a low EUI signifies good energy performance. However, certain property types will always use more energy than others.