It’s a Friday afternoon at the Technology Garden, a business incubator in Syracuse. The dozen-or-so staff members of software design company Rounded Development are sitting around on couches, chowing on Dinosaur Barbeque take-out and chatting up ideas for new products. Ryan Delaney has the story.

SyracuseStartupPod

Late last year, the Cuomo administration laid out its agenda for New York’s future energy requirements. The plan needs to address a range of issues including energy security, pricing, the state’s aging power stations and the role of renewables. Our series looked at various aspects of the plan and sought out comment.

In this report Kate O’Connell visits one power plant caught in a changing energy landscape. New York’s home to some of the oldest power facilities in the U.S. Add in stricter emissions regulations introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the result is tough conditions for coal-fired plants...

New York's coal-fired power plants: repower or take offline?

Late last year, the Cuomo administration laid out its agenda for New York’s future energy requirements. The plan needs to address a range of issues including energy security, pricing, the state’s aging power stations and the role of renewables. Our series looked at various aspects of the plan and sought out comment.

Integral to the state’s Energy Highway Blueprint is a $1 billion ‘Green Bank’, a fund to support the ongoing development of renewable energy technologies. It’s only the second fund of this kind in the country and Ryan Delaney has the details.

$1 billion "green bank" would invest in clean tech projects

Late last year, the Cuomo administration laid out its agenda for New York’s future energy requirements. The plan needs to address a range of issues including energy security, pricing, the state’s aging power stations and the role of renewables. Our series looked at various aspects of the plan and sought out comment.

In this first report, Matt Richmond examines the goals of that plan, known as the Energy Highway Blueprint. 

Jury still out on Cuomo's Energy Highway Blueprint

Late last year, the Cuomo administration laid out its agenda for New York’s future energy requirements. The plan needs to address a range of issues including energy security, pricing, the state’s aging power stations and the role of renewables. Our series looked at various aspects of the plan and sought out comment.

In mid-2012, the NY-Sun initiative was launched to make solar power in the state more affordable. Ashley Hassett takes stock of the scheme and reports on another plan that aspires to solar energy supplying nearly 40% of New York’s energy needs by 2030.

Installations up, but solar can't deliver a renewable future alone

The steaks stacked in the coolers of butcher shops in New York may be marketed as local, but just what that label means varies widely.

The state actually has no definition for classifying whether beef sold under that label is locally produced; the duty of deciding what's local falls to the store selling the meat.

Part of our Innovating Agriculture series 20-25 May, 2013.

New York's 'local' beef, often not as local as you think

New York is the second biggest apple producing state in the country. But, last year production dropped dramatically due to a warmer winter, early blooms, and harsh spring frosts. The total production from the state plummeted from 1.2 million pounds in 2011, to just 710,000 pounds in 2012.

But, weather isn’t the only challenge growers are contending with.

Fighting fire blight in New York's apple industry

Peter Borst has been a beekeeper since 1974 and takes a longer view of the industry’s recent struggles. In 2006, beekeepers began reporting the widespread loss of seemingly healthy bee colonies. It led to the naming of a new disease: Colony Collapse Disorder.

http://innovationtrail.org/post/farmers-and-beekeepers-respond-colony-collapse

One of those challenges is property taxes. Agriculture is a land-intensive industry, so rising property taxes can mean much higher costs for farmers. And taxes have been rising, thanks mostly to increases in the production value of farmland. The Innovation Trail's Joanna Richards reports.  

Farmers' property taxes rise as land values increase

Demand for local food has skyrocketed in big cities like New York and Boston. But do North Country farmers have a role to play in feeding those cities? Sarah Harris explores the challenges of getting North Country goods to major markets. 

Upstate farmers get innovative to access major food markets

The quiet farming community of Alabama sits amongst acres of farm and wetland. It’s also the site chosen for a new Science Technology and Manufacturing Park or STAMP. The high-tech park has also been the subject of some public scrutiny, as Genesee county rates highly amongst top agricultural producers in the state. The project is also an example of when the values of agricultural communities are starting to rub up against an upstate development agenda focused around high-tech manufacturing.

Farming or high-tech park? One community weighs the options

The Innovation Trail is a collaboration between Six upstate New York public media outlets, led by WXXI, along with WBFO/WNED, WRVO, WSKG, WMHT and North Country Public Radio. The initiative, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), will help the public gain a better understanding of the connection between technological breakthroughs and the revitalization of upstate New York's economy. Reports will focus on research, development, education, funding, and policy issues around emerging fields like energy, information technology, biotech, nanotech, and photonics.

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