Dive Brief:
- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul named seven finalists Wednesday for the $10 million Empire Technology Prize, launched last October to advance technologies for low-carbon heating system retrofits in tall commercial and multifamily buildings across the state.
- The Clean Fight, which administers the competition on behalf of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, will help match finalists with leading New York-based real estate portfolio owners to discuss pilot and demonstration opportunities for the proposed heating and distribution systems, the governor’s office said in a news release.
- “The partnership and leadership of real estate owners is key to advancing resilient buildings,” Hochul said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Seventy percent of buildings in New York state were built before it implemented its energy code and require upgrades to progress toward the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goals, the governor’s office said.
The proposed retrofits include steam and high-temperature hot-water heat pumps that leverage both air and water heat sources, “future-proof refrigerants” with low global warming potential and a distribution system that can support the adoption of existing low-temperature heat pumps, it said.
The finalists must develop a “tested and fully functional prototype” of a heating or distribution system that can be installed without displacing occupants and that can work with existing infrastructure in buildings seven stories or taller, per the release.
The finalists are a team consisting of Ambient Enterprises, Flow Environmental Systems and Gil-Bar Industries; AtmosZero; Clean Heat Technologies; Enerin; Hydronic Shell Technologies and Cycle Reyrotech; Johnson Controls; and, and Miller Proctor Nickolas, according to the release.
Each of the finalists will receive an initial $250,000 award with the potential for an additional $750,000 as they achieve milestones in progressing their solutions over the next year. A total of $2 million will also be available to help finalists offset the cost of installing their solutions, such as pilot programs or demonstration projects in eligible tall buildings in the New York market. The final winner will receive an additional $1 million grand prize starting this July and ending in June 2025.
The finalists’ proposed solutions
Johnson Controls’ solution “will provide simultaneous 42-degree Fahrenheit chilled water and 180-degree-plus hot water, which would then be cascaded in a mechanical vapor recompression heat pump, producing low pressure steam,” Rajesh Dixit, director of global product management, HVACR, at Johnson Controls said in an email.
This solution is expected to be two times more efficient than the conventional system of a standalone chiller and a gas-fired boiler, potentially avoiding approximately 3,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. Dixit added.
AtmosZero, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, has presented a steam heat pump that uses a cascade cycle and low global warming potential refrigerants to produce low- to medium-pressure steam, the governor’s office said. The technology has been demonstrated at scale at AtmosZero's facility and will be deployed at a brewery in Colorado in the first quarter of 2025, AtmosZero said.
The modular electrified boiler — a drop-in steam-generating heat pump that can directly replace fossil fuel boilers — is based on heat pump technology that creates more than two units of heat output for one unit of electricity consumed, AtmosZero co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Ashwin Salvi said in an email.
To help site, plan and deploy its technology, AtmosZero is seeking collaborators that are directly using steam in their portfolios and “looking to decarbonize,” Salvi added.
Clean Heat Technologies, a division of Thar Energy based in Pittsburgh, is presenting a steam heat pump that uses a natural refrigerant, with six prototypes developed to date, according to the release.
Meanwhile, Long Island City, New York-based Hydronic Shell Technologies and Cycle Retrotech’s solution involves incorporating a complete HVAC distribution system into a modular facade through a speedy, noninvasive and cost-effective installation process on the exterior of an existing building, according to the release. The company is working on a pilot of this solution in Syracuse, it noted.
Find more information on the finalists’ projects on the Clean Fight’s website.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the status of AtmosZero's steam heat pump technology. It has been demonstrated at scale at the company's facility and will be deployed at a brewery in Colorado in the first quarter of 2025.
