New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 9 - EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
Subtitle BB - State Energy Office
Chapter V - Conservation Programs
Part 7910 - Energy Investment Loan Program
Section 7910.2 - Definitions

(a) Agri-business means businesses involved in food processing or farm production.

(b) Applicant means any person applying for an interest subsidy under the program.

(c) Commercial and industrial business means any commercial or industrial business which is formed or carried on for profit for the benefit of the owner, and which employs less than 500 workers or had gross annual sales of less than $10 million during the last calendar year.

(d) Commissioner means the commissioner of the State Energy Office.

(e) Default means a loan payment which is more than 60 days past due.

(f) Energy audit means a comprehensive onsite survey and analysis of a building and its energy use patterns, designed to identify opportunities for saving energy through implementation of operating and maintenance changes and to assess the cost-effectiveness of appropriate capital improvements. An audit shall include a thorough review of infiltration, insulation, and the ventilation, heating, cooling, lighting, domestic hot water, and utility plant distribution systems.

(g) Energy conservation improvement means the purchase or installation of equipment or materials for energy conservation retrofits or weatherization of a building, or the purchase or installation of equipment affixed to, contained in, or on the grounds of a building, which reduces energy consumption.

(h) Energy Office means the New York State Energy Office.

(i) Farm production means the production of crops, plants, or vines; and the keeping, grazing, or feeding of livestock for the sale of livestock or products. Such establishments include, but are not limited to: farms, ranches, dairies, greenhouses, nurseries, orchards, hatcheries, sod farms, mushroom cellars, cranberry bogs, herbariums, etc.

(j) Financing institution means any bank, trust company, savings bank, savings and loan association, or credit union, whether incorporated, chartered, organized, or licensed under the laws of New York, any other state or the Federal government, authorized to do business in New York State, which enters into an agreement with the Energy Office to participate in the program. This term also includes public authorities, public benefit corporations, units of local government, domestic insurance companies and not-for-profit corporations, which make loans for improvements for the benefit of eligible applicants.

(k) Food processors means businesses engaged in the processing of vegetables, fruits or other food products.

(l) Fossil fuel means coal, petroleum products and fuel gases.

(m) In-house labor means labor provided by the applicant or employees of the applicant.

(n) Interest subsidy means a payment of loan interest by the Energy Office on behalf of an approved applicant.

(o) Loan guarantee means an agreement by the Energy Office to pay a financing institution the amount of the loss sustained by such institution as a result of default on a program loan, in accordance with section 7910.9 of this Part.

(p) Multifamily housing means residential buildings containing five or more dwelling units with each dwelling unit containing kitchen and bath facilities.

(q) Person means an individual, partnership or corporation.

(r) Prepayment means complete payment of the principal and accrued interest prior to the expiration of the loan term.

(s) Prime rate means the prime rate published daily in The Wall Street Journal.

(t) Program means the Energy Investment Loan Program.

(u) Program loan means a loan made to an approved applicant by a financing institution for an energy conservation improvement project which meets the requirements of this Part. Program loans may be made at either fixed or variable interest rates.

(v) Program rate means the interest rate established by the Energy Office, to which the interest rate to be paid by an approved applicant on a program loan will be subsidized.

(w) Project means one or more energy conservation improvements for which application is made for an interest subsidy.

(x) Renewable energy resources means sources which are capable of being continuously restored by natural or other means or are so large as to be useable for centuries without significant depletion and include but are not limited to solar, wind, plant and forest products, wastes, tidal, hydro, geothermal, deuterium and hydrogen.

(y) Simple payback means a figure representing the number of years necessary to recoup the cost of an energy conservation improvement project through annual energy cost savings.

(z) Technical feasibility study means a report which identifies and analyzes in detail cost-effective capital energy conservation improvements which the applicant wishes to implement. The technical feasibility study need address only the specific energy conservation improvements for which an interest subsidy is being requested. Each energy conservation improvement analyzed in the study should be the subject of a single, focused recommendation incorporating technical and economic analyses of the improvement, considering building and equipment characteristics and energy use patterns pertinent to the improvement. The technical feasibility study must include the cost of the implementation, a construction schedule, and expected energy savings.

(aa) Veteran's organization means a bona fine organization of persons who have served in the armed forces of the United States which is a not-for-profit corporation authorized to conduct activities in the State of New York.