Steps Eco-Grid has taken include:

• The near completion of a city-wide heat load analysis. Once the use of a building is known along with its square footage and other facts such as the year it was built, then a basis estimate of energy use can be determined.

• A Steady Force... For the largest energy users in Hudson and Greenport, we have gone well beyond the step above. We have been a steady force over the past two years in successfully obtaining at least 2 years of primary energy consumption of heating/cooling and electricity usage for all city and county buildings, our hospital, prison, and large manufacturing facilities... and more.

• Eco-Grid and its team of District-Energy Advisors and Engineers have identified potential "anchor sites" for a biomass facility in the Hudson/Greenport areas. As you know, district energy is the production of steam, hot water or chilled water, or any combination including all three, at a single central utility plant for distribution to other buildings through a network of pipes.

• Our team, Mesa Reduction Engineering and the Cornell Agro-Forestry Center of Greene County, have all done some of the heavy lifting to produce a draft wood biomass-availability study within a 50-mile radius of Hudson.

• If you are a property owner with a large woodlot (over 30 acres) within a 50-mile radius of Hudson, NY, please complete this wood-availability survey and forward to us.

• Eco-Grid has formed a Hudson-based community advisory group, including representatives from the interests and fields of non-profit direction, forestry, energy, art and community planning.

• Daily, ongoing research: Eco-Grid is in daily conversations with manufacturers of district-energy hardware components, to compare options, specs, pricing, and to begin the formation of long-term partnerships.

• Welcome Aboard: The hiring of Hudson resident, MCI Manager and former Hudson Public Works Commissioner Michael O'Hara as our Director of Research.

• Eco-tourism: Eco-Grid has toured working biomass plants in the Northeast of the US for a comparison of various distributed-generation technologies and to observe the actual, seamless, operations of working biomass facilities. You may join in one of our biomass-plant tours or book your own! Call us for details (347.290.0633).

• COLLECTIVE WISDOM: All of the above steps have been taken at a budget that falls way the below the radar of its giant scope, the work it has produced, and its success to date. We seek your support via charitable donations, volunteerism, professional in-kind labor... call us with your offer of support (347.290.0633) or write to maria@eco-grid.org * matt@eco-grid.org