Mayfield solar project leaps hearing hurdle
By Gwendolyn Craig
The largest solar facility ever proposed in the Adirondack Park, a 40-megawatt array near Great Sacandaga Lake in the town of Mayfield, is closer to reality, despite outstanding concerns from local officials.
The state appears poised to approve a permit to Boralex, a Canadian-founded renewable energy company, for the facility that is expected to generate enough power for 10,000 to 12,000 households annually and contribute to the state’s goals of achieving 70% renewable energy power generation by 2030. The project is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 21,367 tons of carbon dioxide per year, according to the state’s estimates.
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On Nov. 25, staff with the state Department of Public Service and the Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES), which are overseeing the permit process for solar projects over 25 megawatts, recommended the permit’s approval.
On Dec. 26, Administrative Law Judges John Favreau and Christopher McEney Chan denied the town of Mayfield’s request for an adjudicatory hearing on outstanding issues it had regarding the project. An adjudicatory hearing is the only way to greatly alter the permit application. Favreau and Chan said the town’s request did not meet the standard for such a proceeding.
All that remains is for ORES to issue a final permit, which it must do by June 25.
Should the state issue the permit by that time, Boralex plans to construct the solar array on about 200 acres of the Close brothers’ fifth-generation dairy farm starting at the end of the year and into the end of 2026. The facility could generate electricity by the last quarter of 2026, according to a proposed project schedule.
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Boralex said it “is tremendously proud” in its permitting application.
“Through regular engagement with stakeholders, including the town and the village, we identified and mitigated concerns and worked collaboratively with local leaders to develop a project the community and the state can take pride in,” said Zack Hutchins, spokesman for the company.
Permitting process
The Mayfield solar project is unique in the Adirondack Park, not just by its size but by its permitting process.
The state created ORES in 2020. Its mission “is to consolidate the environmental review and permitting of major renewable energy facilities in New York State into a single forum that provides a coordinated and timely review of siting permit applications.”
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The state requires renewable energy projects 25 megawatts and larger to go through the new permit process, though projects as large as 20 megawatts may also opt for the ORES route.
The review process means other permitting entities’ rules and regulations can ultimately be ignored if ORES and the Department of Public Service believe they are too burdensome.
This Mayfield project, for example, does not have to go before the Adirondack Park Agency, which oversees public and private development in the 6-million-acre park. The APA provided input during the review, but some of its suggestions, such as avoiding the tree clearing of 48 acres, were not incorporated.
Town concerns
The state also granted Boralex exemptions from the town and village of Mayfield’s solar laws. In an attempt to enforce its laws, the town applied for party status with the hope that an administrative law judge would hold an adjudicatory hearing.
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Favreau and Chan, however, did not grant it.
In that petition, the town cited concerns about bypassing its requirements for a year-round vegetative buffer, height restrictions, setbacks and panel materials. A town zoning law also stipulates no solar facilities on “prime agricultural land.” The town also had concerns about the decommissioning process.
ORES staff recommended waivers to the local laws, calling them “unreasonably burdensome in view of the CLCPA (Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act) targets and the environmental benefits of the proposed facility.”
Town Supervisor Brandon Lehr said when the state has an agenda, it takes control.
“Honestly I would rather the state didn’t take all of our jurisdiction away,” he said. “It’s not fair for us because we’re the ones that have to live with it and deal with it.”
Lehr said Boralex “put in a good effort” to make everyone as comfortable with the project as possible, and it addressed some of the screening issues from Great Sacandaga Lake.
He remains concerned about traffic during construction, the state’s allowance that some infrastructure may remain after decommissioning and the kinds of buffer vegetation that appear slower growing.
Fulton County’s Planning Board also wrote comments concerned about the panels’ visibility from Great Sacandaga Lake, “the largest tourist destination within the county.” Boralex responded that what panels might be visible from the lake will be “minimally noticeable” due to the vegetative screening, distance from the lake and the solar panel design.
The state received more than 50 comments on the project, the majority of which were neighbors to the project site, expressing similar concerns.
The Adirondack Council wrote supporting the project’s intent of meeting the state’s climate goals, but cautioned against the cutting “of acres of forests.” “(W)e must remind the applicant and ORES that the Adirondack Park is a unique region of the state, with large intact forests that serve a variety of climate functions–carbon sequestration, water quality support, biodiversity habitat and more,” the council wrote.
Several wrote in support of the project, including New Yorkers for Clean Power.
“There is no bigger threat to our environment, our biodiversity, our wetlands, our farmland, and our physical, mental, and economic well-being than this crisis, caused primarily by burning fossil fuels,” the organization wrote. It called the Mayfield solar project “pollution-free energy from the sun for the betterment of our health, the health of our soils and ecosystem, and a healthier future for generations to come.”
Top image: A map of the proposed 40 megawatt solar project in Mayfield, courtesy of Boralex application records
I am not impressed with solar farms and wind farms. They take up too much land and ruin the landscape.
Take a look around your own neighbor at how many homes and the associate out buildings ruin the landscape.
My experience with renewable energy developers has not been positive. They will promise the moon and stars but don’t necessarily deliver. They’ll fight with you about not being able to comply with developing “within 100 feet of wetlands” because it’s overburdensome. Regarding turbine construction they prefer to do their own post-construction avian mortality studies vs an independent study.
Shouldn’t the host COMMUNITY be rewarded, not just the landowner? After all, everyone has to live with them. Will school or property taxes go down? Maybe we’ll all just need to be grateful for being allowed to contribute to the greater good .
Nothing does a better job at dealing with carbon emissions than a tree.
Vote for liberals and this is what you get.
Another example of the destruction of New York.
Look at California and you’ll see the same in the form of fires.
If the state continues to mandate all renewable energy, there will be many more unsightly, unreliable and ultra expensive solar farms. Then the windmills will move in. There simply isn’t enough real-estate in the state to avoid this fact. The footprint required to power nys will be massive. No jurisdiction will escape this sham. The state will force millions more to flee when residential electric rates hit $1000/month and brownouts will be normal.
“The review process means other permitting entities’ rules and regulations can ultimately be ignored if ORES and the Department of Public Service believe they are too burdensome.
This Mayfield project, for example, does not have to go before the Adirondack Park Agency, which oversees public and private development in the 6-million-acre park. The APA provided input during the review, but some of its suggestions, such as avoiding the tree clearing of 48 acres, were not incorporated. ”
If true, this is indeed disgraceful within the Blue Line. If NYS wants to push the renewable agenda, let them do it outside of the Park – WHERE THE POPULATION LIVES! Within the Park, the APA should be the permitting body.
I would like to know the environmental impact of the transmission lines to the FP as well. This is rarely mentioned.
That’s. 5 acres per house. Is it worth the use of prime farmland sanctioned by a heavy handed NYS agency over ruling local town jurisdiction. NY only cares about pleasing the Greenies. The cost of electricity is skyrocketing and this just fuel to the cost of electricity!
1. Your math is not correct! The correct average is 1/50th of an acre (approximately 800 square feet) per household.
2. Targeted local town restrictions are a huge rural problem where NIMBYs control land uses without going through a zoning process. Wind and solar projects can meet agricultural zoning because the land is not subdivided and can be returned to full agricultural use after project decommissioning or continue to be used for agriculture during the life of the project.
locals got this one shoved down your throat, I am positive without state and federal subsidies this project does not happen, good luck with those taxes and power bills upstate.
So it’s not really a park. Hochul destroys everything she touches.
Within the Adirondack Park if someone cuts down a tree on state land that person will be crucified. The state removed over 20 fire towers within the Adirondack Park along with 5 Interior Ranger Stations because they an eyesore and man-made structures do not belong in the wilderness.
Yet when the environmental ideology wants a huge eyesore such as a massive solar farm the Adirondack Park Agency is all in on the project.
Whom precisely will realize a financial gain through the installation of this new proposed solar farm within the Adirondack Park in Mayfield?
Solar panels don’t belong in the park among nature. Stick it in Albany. We live in nature not high lines and clearing of land.
The map is a horrible example of where this solar farm is going to be. Is the entire farm land being used? If so it will be a horrible view from the lake.
This will open the floodgates for future solar and wind development into the Adirondack Park. Not all that is green is good. Wake up NYS!
Two things are troubling about this process. First, the state and its bureaucracy have effectively given all the entities who have rules and regulations to protect the park the middle finger. Second, the article starts by stating this project will generate enough power for 10,000 to 12,000 homes. Bullshit! That statement only makes sense if those 10,000 to 12,000 homes are dark and cold at night. Solar is a supplement and will never replace traditional power production facilities!
I think it’s great that the owner is trying to save his farm by not selling it to be developed for housing but instead is allowing a solar farm to be installed, which will still allow him to raise livestock, bees, etc. It’s too bad that trees will have to be cut but he could do that anyway for housing, etc. on his private property. We need to do everything quickly to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels to prevent the worst from happening. Fires and floods are already baked in thanks to no action by our government leaders to reduce our emissions since alarms were first raised over 40 years ago. But it will get much, much worse if we don’t start replacing fossil fuels with solar and wind for electricity, and fossil fuel powered vehicles with electric vehicles.
Because nothing is better for bees than destroying 40 acres of trees and covering it with solar panels. Electric vehicles are not going to save the planet, they only make it worse.
Anyone really see the hypocrisy here? An agency that is exempt from all well-known laws and typical NYS bureaucracy? I don’t see enough questions asked nor answered about decommissioning. Who’s responsible for the cost of replacement of the system after its useful life or reclamation of the property? Clean energy? People are led down the wrong road, here. Panels turn sunlight into electricity. Great on sunny days, less output on cloudy days and zero at night and when they’re covered in snow. Another sham similar to Andrew’s famous failed windmill project off of Lake Erie that was purposely neglected by the media. These panels replace vegetation and create heat domestic but, hey, you didn’t hearit from me.
I miss George Pataki…the “State” has too much blind power. When he became Governor, the number one employer in NYS was “The State”….that’s practically communism . Also the state is not a good custodian of our lands. Thank you all in advance.
Gov Pataki reduced the number of state workers to a more balance level.
I like the idea of solar power just not on agricultural, forested, open land. How about putting it over all the parking lots and strip malls where the infrastructure already exist.
Also why when you own a farm, which i do, do we always look for a way to save the farm. How about we farmers who feed the population get compensated for what it really cost to make milk, hay, beef, honey, wool, food, so we don’t have to save the farm. We would then not have to give up what we love in order to satisfy the utility company’s, developers, and venture capitalists.
I know many of farm families who cant continue farming because of there being little to no money in it for the small farmer.
Solar and wind are a way of producing energy but when it is shoved down our throats without looking out in the long term we just have more of kicking the can down the road for immediate gratification.
STOP ADDING HUMAN BABIES TO AN OVER-CROWDED EARTH, the human population will go down, and IT WILL NOT BE “NECESSARY” TO DESECRATE WILDERNESS PARKS WITH INDUSTRIAL SOLAR AND WIND POWER to meet the demands of a growing human population. Problem Solved !
This is a mistake. Speak to Warrensburg officials and see how they feel about solar farms. I thought that the APA was supposed to be protecting us from scars like this on our landscape. The savings do not trickle down to the consumers, the only ones who win are the solar companies. Perhaps the towns within the Blue Line should be governing more than their hamlets if that APA is dropping the ball and allowing this type of development. This is not about clean energy it is about greed and not in the best interest of the Adirondack Park.
It’s ridiculous that the APA and local regulations are being ignored with a project of this magnitude within the Blue Line. All of the concerns mentioned by the town and APA are significant and should be throughly reviewed and assessed. Clear cutting 48 acres of forest is a major impact as is how the decommissioning process will play out. These Chinese made panels are full of toxic substances. Who is responsible for taking everything down and ensuring proper disposal?
The state peak load so everyone is aware runs about 34,000 MW or about 850 TIMES the output of this scam.
Solar peaks from 10 am to 3pm, state load hits from 3pm to 7pm.
(Retired engineer New York Power Authority)
It is obvious here that most commenters are against this project and any other green energy initiatives. We have no choice but to do this. Clean energy must become real, and the only way that happens is through efforts like this; perhaps not perfect but steps in the right direction. I’m sure after the first Wright brothers flights there was a lot of disparagement, but look where we are today in 100 years!
No, this is a first step in a process that gets us to carbon free energy. We have no choice but to follow this path.
Sorry John, it’s just a money grab. It’s old outdated technology. Fusion energy will replace scary carbon energy.
Some have drank the cool aid that denuding the forests and food producing land is the way to carbon free energy or energy independence. Its a sure fire way to food insecurities and more warming of the planet. We need all the green space we have now and more. Again scan the USA and look at all the roofs, parking lots, stripped lands, abandoned and contaminated lands that already exist with the infrastructure already in place. Use that first and then if we need more, look elsewhere. Follow the money and it will lead to someone’s pocket being lined and turning a blind eye to health of the park and planet.
Funny when it’s in your backyard it’s bad, but in my backyard it’s okay.
You get what you ask for!!