Heat Recovery Program

Harnessing Wasted Heat to Fuel Building Decarbonization

NYSERDA is working to energize the New York State marketplace for heat recovery solutions. Buildings, which represent around one-third of New York’s greenhouse gas emissions, waste heat (i.e., thermal energy) through a variety of processes, including ventilation, cooling, and wastewater systems. By capturing and repurposing that rejected energy, heat recovery solutions help building owners reduce operating costs and lower carbon emissions.

To increase awareness and adoption of heat recovery solutions, the Heat Recovery Program aims to advance solutions that can significantly improve thermal efficiency and support planning activities to accelerate a pipeline of successful heat recovery retrofits.

Heat Recovery Turns a Problem Into an Opportunity

Heat Recovery recycles wasted thermal energy, reducing a building’s energy consumption and carbon footprint. Recovering wasted heat – energy that building owners have already paid for – and repurposing it directly at point of use or storing it for later represents a promising approach to large building decarbonization.

Hudson 345

Retrofitting a 1931 NYC office building to recycle heating and cooling energy.

Watch Video 

Recent Demonstrations Validate the Heat Recovery Opportunity in NYS

Recent projects, including the demonstration projects advanced through NYSERDA’s Empire Building Challenge (EBC), have shown that heat recovery is a no-regrets decarbonization strategy for many of New York’s existing building stock. All ten projects awarded by EBC have featured heat recovery in some form as part of a phased decarbonization retrofit [PDF].

By building on the successful demonstrations of this technology, this program aims to grow the pool of completed heat recovery projects from 10 to 100.

Learn More and Get Involved

We’re looking to work with consulting engineers, heat recovery solution providers, building owners and operators, and other key stakeholders to increase adoption of heat recovery solutions amongst a larger share of NYS buildings.