Image from Stephan Reber, Creative Commons

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA)

We worked in partnership with Renewable Highlands to create a local Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) district. What began as coffee one morning three years ago between neighbors discussing how to make our community more sustainable has led to us creating New York's second CCA.  As of July 1, 2019, over 40,000 households in the City of Beacon, Village of Cold Spring, Town of Philipstown, Town of Fishkill, City of Poughkeepsie, Town of New Paltz, Village of New Paltz, Town of Red Hook and Town of Marbletown have converted to 100% renewable, locally-sourced electricity.

CCAs in New York State. In 2016, New York State joined six other states in the nation to authorize CCAs, allowing communities to pool homeowner and small business electricity accounts together to gain bargaining power in negotiating better energy supply agreements. The pilot Westchester County CCA worked, with 70,000 out of 110,000 customers switching over to a 100% renewable energy option while saving money. 

Democratizing our energy. CCAs are about democratizing energy choice, giving communities the power to determine where their energy will come from.  In addition, an innovative CCA contract can specify that the CCA supplier must buy locally produced renewable energy first, creating a market for local energy.  With approximately 30% of America's greenhouse gas emissions coming from electricity generation, CCAs are truly a local solution to a global problem.

Partners

 

 

We would also like to thank the Malcolm Gordon Charitable Fund for its generous support of this project.