Copake granted appeal in Shepherd’s Run solar fight

COPAKE — The Town of Copake has been granted an expedited appeal in its fight to stop a proposed 60 megawatt (MW) solar farm sited along routes 23 and 7, claiming that the applicant’s generating capacity has been cut by 20% and no longer stands as proposed.

Known as the Shepherd’s Run Solar Farm, the project has been greeted with community opposition since it was announced in 2017 and opponents repeatedly have taken their case to court without success.

The project footprint spans 880 acres with a solar array covering about 220 acres. The installation would be one of the first things motorists encounter as they enter this agricultural community from the west along Route 23.

Last summer, the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) declared the application by Hecate Energy of Chicago “complete” and subsequently issued a draft siting permit. That set the stage for ORES to announce a public comment period and in-person public hearings for Jan. 9 and 10.

On Jan. 2, the Town of Copake, having discovered that some of the land associated with the project had been sold to a new uninterested party, filed a motion to dismiss the application or adjourn the public comment hearings “pending major revision to the application.”

According to the town’s filing, almost 60 acres, or about 20% of the entire facility’s solar array, along with the sole access road for adjacent facility parcels, no longer are under Hecate’s control.

“The project no longer exists in its proposed form,” said Town Supervisor Richard Wolf. “The application is no longer what [Hecate] said it was,” he added.

The town filed its motion after the 60-acre farmland parcel, located at the corner of Cambridge Road and County Route 7, was sold to a buyer that is uninterested in the Shepherd’s Run project.

Hecate Energy could not be reached for comment, but a company spokesman had told the Albany Times-Union that Hecate would let the process speak for itself.

Photo by John Coston

Farmland vista where the proposed 880-acre, 60 megawatt Shepherd’s Run Solar Farm is planned along Route 23 at the entryway to the rural hamlet of Copake. Opponents say the project, big enough to power the equivalent of 15,000 homes annually, would detract from the scenic farmland community.

At first, during a hearing on Thursday, Jan. 4, an administrative law judge denied the town’s motion, but later in the same day, the town filed for an expedited appeal of the judge’s oral ruling. What followed was the executive director of ORES, Houtan Moaveni, overruling the judge and granting the town of Copake its motion.

“This project has to be rejected,” said Wolf. “Or go back to do the engineering and design and go through the whole process again.”

Moaveni set new dates for the town to file arguments in its request to dismiss Hecate’s application (Tuesday, Jan. 16) and for Hecate to respond to the town’s statements (Monday, Jan. 22). All public comment hearings were adjourned by Moaveni pending a decision on the town’s appeal.

Under a 2020 New York law — the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act — new large-scale renewable energy projects producing 25 MW or more must obtain a permit from ORES. Projects under that threshold fall under so-called “home rule.”

A community solar project approved by the Pine Plains Planning Board late last year falls under “home rule” because it envisions two solar arrays, each producing close to 5MW for a total of 10MW.

Throughout last year, the town of Pine Plains considered an application from Carson Power of New York City for a Tier 3 community solar project that would sited on 42 acres of a 172-acre property near Pulvers Corners on Route 199.

As the year came to a close and after the Planning Board had given its approval, a group of neighbors and landowners near the proposed project filed a legal action in New York Supreme Court in Dutchess County seeking an injunction prohibiting any work at the site.

The case will be heard by Edward J. McLaughlin, an acting justice in the New York County Supreme Court who is expected to sit in Dutchess County for the case brought against the Pine Plains Planning Board and others.