How Are Clean and Renewable Energy Different?

Michelle Rochniak | 8/18/2025

 

When people talk about eco-friendly energy, they sometimes use “clean” and “renewable” interchangeably. But they don’t necessarily mean the same thing.

Clean energy is energy that doesn’t release greenhouse gases. It includes solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal energy. It also includes nuclear energy—which doesn’t emit greenhouse gases but does create radioactive waste. Nuclear also harms the land, and Indigenous peoples generally oppose nuclear for that reason. For more on this, see Joe Heath’s (General Counsel of the Onondaga Nation) article for the Sierra Club.

Renewable energy is energy that is easily replenished. It uses resources that are essentially infinite. This category includes all of the above except nuclear. So, generally speaking, all renewable energy is clean, but not all clean energy is renewable.

As we create an energy transition that’s better for us and our planet, it’s important for the energy we use to be both clean and renewable. 

Here at MHET, we’re excited for all kinds of clean, renewable energy. Our community solar program has slowly been growing over the last several months, and we’ve got our eyes on a couple of other clean energy projects. Eventually, we hope to bring agrivoltaics and thermal energy networks to the Hudson Valley.

Agrivoltaics combines farming and solar panels in one place. This allows farmers to maintain their farms and harvest clean, renewable energy at the same time. It also creates additional shade and can provide more space for pollinators.

Thermal energy networks, or TENs, use a network of pipes to distribute thermal energy for heating and cooling between buildings. The thermal energy comes from existing heat resources, like wastewater treatment plants, or from digging boreholes 500+ feet into the ground. Digging boreholes can be expensive upfront. But once the networks are in place, they’re clean, safe, and quiet. Most importantly, they can be more than 500% more efficient than current heating and cooling systems. This means they’ll allow us to use less energy and keep more resources within our community.

MHET has a lot of clean energy dreams. All of our work strives to allow the community to have energy democracy, or ownership over clean energy. It’ll take some time for it all to happen, but we’re confident that change can happen. Explore our website today to learn more and see how we can work together to help the Kingston community!

What You Need to Know About Weatherization

Michelle Rochniak | 8/7/2025

Did you know that insulating your home can help you save money on your energy bill?

It’s true — things like closing the gap between a door and the floor, wrapping pipes, and sealing windows can all keep outside air out. Keeping out heat in the summer and cold in the winter can lower your bill, which doesn’t have to be something you do on your own.

Programs like the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) have helped a lot of people save money through weatherization tactics like insulation, ductwork, and ventilation repairs. In fact, the average weatherized household saves $372 on their energy bill every year.

WAP is a fantastic option for those who need support insulating their home, but it isn’t perfect. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) shared recently that about one in five eligible households can’t get what they need from WAP. This is because WAP requires that homes get other critical pre-weatherization repairs first before using the program.

These pre-weatherization repairs aren’t small or cheap either. Leaky roofs are the main issue for a majority of homes that can’t currently use WAP. When problems like that cost $14,000 on average, making repairs to create a home that’s up to WAP’s standards can be a nearly impossible task.

The federal government created a pre-weatherization fund (PWF) in 2022 to solve this problem, but it only invested $15 million. And now, the “Big Ugly Bill” is deprioritizing programs like the WAP and PWFs. Energy costs will rise across the country by $33 billion annually by 2035. That means it will be even harder, especially for low-income households, to make critical (pre-)weatherization repairs to their homes.

When programs fail people or become nonexistent, the community has a responsibility to call and act for better.

We want to help fill in the gaps at MHET. Our community requires weather- and climate-resilient homes now. Our solutions aim to make it easier for community members across Kingston to make those homes a reality.

Our hyper-accessible Home Upgrade Grants (HUG) program and our Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) both assist people with making energy-efficient upgrades to their homes.

HUG provides free financial support to low-income households in Kingston. HELP gives ultra-low-interest loans (2% APR) to low- and moderate-income Kingston homes. We know these programs will help create healthier, safer homes for low-income and other historically marginalized communities.

National programs aren’t meeting our community’s needs, so we’re doing what we can on the local level to help our neighbors. If you are interested in taking some small steps to insulate your home on your own, we have free weatherization kits to help boost your home’s insulation. If you’re interested in getting one (or know someone who might want one), reach out to info@mid-hudson.energy or call (845) 383-1050.

Energy Costs in Summer vs Winter

Michelle Rochniak | 6/26/2025

Winter heating and summer cooling use a substantial amount of energy in your home. But which costs more on average?

You might  think this simple question would have a simple answer. But the kind of energy you use in the winter probably isn’t the same energy you use in the summer. And when looking for an average cost, your neighbors may not use the same energy as you in either season, or at all. Energy sources won’t have the answers we need — we have to observe our climate instead.

Imagine if it was over 90°F every single day for all of July this year. That’s how many “extreme heat days” (above 90°F) that Region 5 of New York may experience over the course of a year by the end of the 2020s.

The Hudson River Estuary Program estimates that, by the end of the decade, the Hudson Valley will have between 19 and 31 days that are above 90°F every single year. The number of extreme heat days  is doubling from the 10-12 days above 90°F in the baseline era of 1971-2000.

On the other side, there are “cold days,” where the temperature is at or below 32°F. In the Hudson Valley,  there will be less cold days by the end of the decade, with Regions 2 (orange area on map) and 5 (green area) experiencing between 108 and 136  by the end of the decade compared to their baselines of 138 and 155.  That’s a loss of almost three weeks of cold days in both regions.

While that indicates we’ll need less heating in the winters, we’ll need more energy to stay cool in the summers. The Hudson Valley regions used to have 1-2 heat waves a year with 4 days each during the baseline era. But by the end of the decade, both regions could have 3 or 4 heat waves a year — with 5 days each.

In 2020, environmental health scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Washington published a study that examined severe weather-driven power outages in New York State between 2017 and 2020. The study suggests that, of all urban areas outside of New York City, the Hudson Valley and Long Island had the most severe weather-driven power outages. And power outages are more likely to happen when temperatures go above 86°F in all non-NYC urban areas. That means more power outages in Kingston are more likely as we see more days of 90°F or higher per year.

Our current backup generator system is also not enough. The energy grid is relatively stable for now. But when we do need backup energy, we tend to use diesel generators. Those generators cause a lot of air pollution and can further endanger our neighbors’ health. 

While everyone will feel these changes, they’ll hit historically marginalized communities the most — who have already experienced the brunt of climate change up until and including now. It’s irresponsible to create a future where this is still the case.

While it isn’t clear what will cost more, summer cooling will likely use more resources as temperatures rise with energy costs. But no one, especially marginalized communities, should have to pay this rising price. If we don’t change now, we’ll keep contributing to an unjust, exclusive energy system.