Solar array marks ninth permitted in the Champlain Valley
By Gwendolyn Craig
The Adirondack Park Agency on Thursday approved its ninth solar project permit in the Champlain Valley.
The latest APA approval is for a 10-megawatt solar array with panels on about 33 acres on either side of Vineyard Road in the town of Crown Point.
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The approval is the 11the solar project permitted by the APA. It reflects a steady interest in installing panels on farms or former farms of the park, although not every project approved has been built.
The APA, which oversees public and private development in the park, approved the major public utility unanimously with conditions. Board Member Zoë Smith was absent.
Conditions include planting trees and shrubs to block views of the panels from public roads, using stormwater management strategies and providing the agency with photos after the project is completed. A required decommissioning plan would come with a surety bond to the town of Crown Point in case the solar company goes out of business.
David Plante, deputy director of the agency’s regulatory programs, said those bonds generally cover the cost of removing the solar panels and restoring the land.
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The town is also discussing payments in lieu of taxes, APA staff said.
Sol Source Power LLC is leading the project and is leasing lands from the Rafferty Family Revocable Trust and Joyce L. Rafferty, according to the permit. The panels will go up on agricultural land, most recently used as hayfields. The company will also remove about 4.5 acres of trees.
The APA used a new tool created by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry that assesses and maps the carbon capture of a landscape to determine the “carbon debt,” of the solar facility before it’s built.
Ariel Lynch, an environmental program specialist with the APA, said the project area captures about 31 metric tons of carbon per hectare, which is about 16 tons less on average per hectare than caputured across the park. Lynch said the landscape has seen very little carbon sequestration over the past 30 years.
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Four people including three nearby residents were not in favor of the project. Among the 14 pages of written comments, no one wrote in favor of the proposal.
Some did not like the looks of the panels. The application includes renderings of the landscape and panels along Vineyard Road and Pearl Street. It will be at least a decade before trees and shrubs bordering the project grow tall enough to block the sea of panels, they show.
Others wrote about potential impacts on wildlife. Lynch said fencing around the panels will be six inches from the ground to allow for wildlife to pass under.
The project will also plant a pollinator mix around the panels and mowing restrictions will be in place. The tree cutting is also not allowed from May 1 to Oct. 31 to protect bat colonies that may roost in the trees.
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Other concerns included impacts to wetlands and water, concerns about noise, heat and lower property values. Lynch said the project will be situated to protect wetlands and erosion and sediment controls will be required.
The panels are fixed and will not track the sun. There would be noise from inverters and transformers connecting the panels to the grid, but they are too far from neighboring private homes to have any adverse impact, according to the applicants and APA.
The project calls for 16 new utility poles to connect the project to the grid. The two solar panel sites on either side of the road will be bordered by an eight-foot woven wire fence.
Randy Young, director of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Region 6, asked Lynch whether the APA would consider requiring a more diverse mix of trees in the border plantings in case pests attack one of the species.
Lynch and APA Project Analyst Aaron Ziemann said the solar company will plant four species of trees and shrubs.
A sand and gravel mine borders the project site on the southwestern side and is governed by an APA permit set to expire in October. The solar company will have an easement to use the mine’s access road for a portion of the project.
Lynch and other APA staff were unsure if the mine’s owners were planning to renew the mining permit.
APA Chairman John Ernst said he was hoping to hear the mine would be filled and the solar panels would be on the mine.
APA Board Member Ken Lynch said it seemed a vast majority of the solar projects the agency sees are in the Champlain Valley.
“Is that because of interconnection (to the grid)? The landscape?” Ken Lynch asked.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Ariel Lynch said. “It’s mostly the utility infrastructure that’s in place there, but there are also parcels with larger acreages in land.”
The APA’s jurisdiction over major public utilities is superseded for renewable energy projects that are 25 megawatts and larger by the state Office of Renewable Energy Siting and the Public Service Commission. There is one project in the park of that size, a 40-megawatt solar array proposed in the town of Mayfield on Great Sacandaga Lake. The APA has provided input on that project, proposed by the solar company Boralex.
Plante said it was recently deemed complete and is expected to be released for public comment in less than 60 days.
That project makes the 12th large-scale solar array permitted in the park.
Top photo: One of the renderings showing the beginning installation of a 10-megawatt solar project in Crown Point along Vineyard Road. Screenshot from an Adirondack Park Agency presentation
Sad, retired from industry. On average 24/365 this at best will produce 1 MW. The state daily average is about 18,000 MW, peak at 36,000.
Let’s just destabilize the electric grid with even more intermittent power sources like solar power because for every kW of solar power capacity the same amount of reliable backup power will be needed, either carbon-based or uranium-based, and unlike conventional power sources solar power provides no spinning (inertial) reserve. Pumped storage and battery power aren’t in and of themselves a power source because both must be recharged so I’m not including them here.
Unlike conventional power plants who’s lives can be extended by decades solar panels go bye bye after about 20 years and get tossed into a landfill. and during their lifetime their power output decreases.
Solar power – not a bright idea.
Thrilled to see the approval of this solar project! Solar energy is now more cost-efficient than coal, hydro, natural gas, and nuclear. I commend the APA for prioritizing this significant initiative & taking action – true leadership from this agency! This approval represents a crucial step toward protecting our environment and combating climate change.