Solar array could serve up to 400 customers

The town says a planned 2-megawatt solar power array will provide an option for renewable energy and lower utility bills to as many as 400 property owners.

Alicia Scott, project manager for Poughkeepsie-based BQ Energy, told the Town Board last week that it has taken about three years for Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. to sign off on a connection, but that it now is expected to cost about $500,000 instead of an earlier estimate of $1.7 million.

The new array would be next to Esopus’ 600-kilowatt solar array at the former town landfill on Lake Shore Drive. That project was completed in 2017, three years later than planned due to problems with a developer.

BQ Energy was hired to complete the 600-kilowatt system, which was constructed to offset all of the town’s electricity use. Company officials floated the idea of a community source of electricity at the same site but needed to find the technology that would adjust to fluctuations in that part of Central Hudson’s grid.

BQ has been paying $10,000 per year to lease the site of the proposed 2-megawatt array through March 2021, though the Town Board last week agreed to extend that by a year.

“We do anticipate being able to start construction by late spring of 2021 as long as Central Hudson and everything goes according to plan,” Scott said. “That would mean that we could be operational by midsummer of 2021.”

She said a program is to be established to allow residential property owners and small businesses to buy electricity from the new array as a way to lower their Central Hudson bills.

“Local residents would subscribe to buy a certain percentage of power from the project, and they would get a fixed discount, usually 10 percent,” from Central Hudson, Scott said.

The project will be limited to Esopus residents at the outset but could be expanded if excess capacity is available.