Solar to-and-fro

Solar arrays — large or small — can draw opposition from communities that worry about the visual impact on the landscape. They also raise concerns about the landscape itself — in other words, the land usage. In our region, where this is no scarcity of open land, the issue becomes a debate about sacrificing agricultural land and impacting natural habitat as well as visual impact. One other question that has surfaced in public airings about solar solutions questions the merits of an installation that has to be decommissoned in 25 years. What happens to the junked arrays then?

In Dutchess County and in neighboring Litchfield County, some proposed solar projects have shifted into a state of flux — not marching smartly ahead — or are dead in the water.

In Pine Plains, the Planning Board approved a 10 megawatt solar farm at Pulvers Corners back in November of 2023. Neighbors sued in New York State Supreme Court and after months of court time, Judge Anthony R. Mole of Putnam County Supreme Court denied the neighbors’ petition. In a June 5 decision, the judge said the project would not result “in a significant adverse impact on the surrounding community.”

The case had landed in Judge Mole’s courtroom only after Supreme Court justices in Dutchess County recused themselves — for various reasons — and by the subsequent recusal by another Putnam County justice.

Following Judge Mole’s decision, the neighbors immediately sued again, filing an appeal in the Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court.

Carson Power LLC of New York City, which is proposing the project, has been holding off on any land clearing as part of an agreement with the town to protect the long-eared bat. The northern long-eared bat is listed an a threatened species that is in danger of becoming a endangered species. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the numbers of these bats have declined by up to 99 percent in the Northeast, based on hibernation counts.

The latest news on the Pulvers Corners solar farm came this month when the Pine Plains Planning Board extended a special use permit that was to expire in May 2025. The new expiration will be November 2025.

A much bigger solar project, Shepherd’s Run in Copake, has been moving at a halting pace amid community opposition. Shepherd’s Run originally was designed as a 60 megawatt farm, but was scaled back to 42 megawatts when New York State’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting tossed Hecate Energy LLC’s application after the company lost control of an integral parcel of land.

Hecate soon responded that it would resize the project and refile its application with the state. In fact, the company assured residents at a company-sponsored town hall in the spring that it would refile in early June. Well, Labor Day is around the corner.
“It’s now almost ten weeks since Hecate could have filed its application…for a siting permit to construct a 42-megawatt utility-scale solar factory on mostly prime farmland in Craryville,” wrote Richard Wolf, Copake Town Supervisor. “The developer still has not filed, and we all are wondering why.”

In Sharon, Conn., a controversial town solar project to be built adjacent to Sharon Center School went to a town vote in January and passed 338 to 171. But this month the deal was undone, due to a setback: the school’s limited electrical service was unable to handle the solar amperage. It would take time and about $100,000 more to perform an upgrade.

It was time to pull the plug.