Community solar plans approved
HALFMOON, N.Y. » New York State Gas and Electric Corporation customers in the southern Saratoga County area will soon get another chance to sign up for community solar power.
Last month, thr town Planning Board approved two solar projects on Pruyn Hill Road for Cyprus Creek Renewables LLC. When completed, the two projects will provide a total of four megawatts of solar generated electricity, enough to power between 600 to 1,000 homes or small businesses.
The board’s vote to approve the project came after a public hearing was held to discuss the subdivision of one large parcel into two, and the granting of two special use permits for the Pruyn Road site.
The few residents who spoke at a hearing live nearby and though all favored the project, several had concerns with the potential for flooding on their land as the result of the project’s construction.
An engineering consultant for Cyprus Creek assured the board that the regulations of the project’s SPDES (State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit would be fulfilled and that no storm water runoff would impact the residents.
Planning Board members questioned John Reagan, the company’s zoning and outreach manager of development, at the meeting on how the large solar panels would be protected from unforeseen damage and visually buffered from surrounding residents.
He answered that plans call for a six-foot fence around the perimeter but that he and the company were amenable to other suggestions. Cyprus Creek has a 20-year lease on the property with a clause stating that if the solar farm was to be decommissioned the frames and photovoltaic panels would be removed.
A community solar project is a group of solar panels installed in a sunny location that allows anyone who is a customer of that area’s utility provider to access the clean energy produced by the panels and get credit on their electric bills. It enables those who cannot put solar panels on their properties to receive a subscription of the solar production from off-site panels like the Cypress Creek project.
Reagan said the project falls under the New York State Public Service Commission’s mandate that 50 percent of the state’s power must come from renewable sources by the year 2030.
“We’ve identified many potential projects in many places across the state in different utility service districts,” he said. “The needs for a twomegawatt solar farm like the ones we’re going to build in Halfmoon are about 20 acres of land, the land must be reasonably flat and dry, and it must be close to the utility (company).”
Once constructed, customers such as homeowners, renters, small businesses, towns and school districts serviced by NYSEG could buy one or several solar panels from the Cypress Creek company and see their electric bill reduced.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company has huge solar farms in places like North Carolina and Texas but in New York, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has put a maximum of two megawatts on community solar projects for New York.
The Pruyn Road site is the second attempt in the town at a community solar project. In April 2016 a large solar farm was opened on Cary Road. Half the panels installed on the site were to be used by Stewart’s Shops for their electricity and half were to be marketed to the community.
“We hope the solar farm lasts more than 30 years,” Reagan said. “Solar panels developed in the 1970s are still producing electricity. We’re optimistic that the solar farm will be producing for a very long time.”
There is no construction expected on the two sites this year. Reagan could give no date as to when it might start. With the project’s approval in hand, he said a marketing group will be in the area in the coming months to reach out to potential customers and explain the options available for switching to a renewable energy source.