If right now, solar is the new s- word, done right, it could hold potential for Schoharie County.
That’s the challenge facing supervisors new Energy Committee, even as a Route 7, Cobleskill site is being talked about for a possible 20-megawatt solar facility and a plan being fast-tracked by Governor Andrew Cuomo is raising concerns that it could also be a way to fast-track Article 10 projects like the one under review in the Town of Sharon.
The purpose of the Energy Committee isn’t to discourage solar development, Blenheim Supervisor and chair Don Airey said Friday, but to make sure “there’s a fair deal at the end of the day.
“What’s happening in some nearby communities…I’m appalled,” he said. “If they want in here, they need to be full partners.”
Five towns have adopted a resolution passed by supervisors in December requires pre-application fees and sets minimums for PILOTS.
Cobleskill isn’t one of them—yet—but Supervisor Leo McAllister told his Economic Development Committee before supervisors met that he’s frustrated by the fact that solar companies are deliberately talking to farmers and other first before coming to him.
“We know these are tough times for farmers,” he said. “And this is good farm land. But we have a solar law on the books. They’re going right to the landowners and that puts the pressure on us.”
So does the demand for PILOTS, said Schoharie Supervisor Alan Tavenner, who questioned the need for the tax breaks when “there doesn’t seem to be any lack of people wanting to bring these things in.”
There are some places where commercial-scale solar could work and the Route 7 corridor might be one of them, Mr. McAllister said.
He’s been in discussions with W.E.B. Energy, the company interested in building a 20-megawatt project—just under the 25-megawatt mark that would kick it into the state’s Article 10 process and out of local review—at the former Nark farm site, once the “backup site” for the new jail.
“It’s a pretty good location,” Mr. McAllister said.
“It’s not good farm land, there’s access to huge power lines…It could be a win-win all around. We’re not going to get a warehouse there, but it would mean economic development.”
The type of solar panels developers could be using along with natural berms would also reduce the project’s visual impact, he said.
Mr. McAllister cautioned that talks are early.