Now it’s Middleburgh’s turn.
East Light Partners, a Cambridge, Massachusetts firm, is looking at building a 20-megawatt solar project on 125-150 acres mostly surrounding the Middleburgh Rod & Gun Club.
The Rod & Gun Club doesn’t want it there, said John Wingfield, a member asked to sit in on talks with ELP; Mr. Wingfield also chairs Middleburgh’s Zoning Board of Appeals and is retired from the New York Power Authority.
And both Middleburgh Supervisor Wes Laraway and Mayor Trish Bergan are adamant that large-scale solar has no place in their community.
“Every single trustee I’ve talked to and myself as mayor, we’re all opposed to this,” Mayor Bergan said Friday.
“This has no place in an agricultural, historic place like Middleburgh. Is there someplace here that’s appropriate for it? I don’t know. I can’t think of anywhere.”
Because of its size—20-megawatts—the proposed Middleburgh project would be an Article 23—2020’s version of Article 10—which means approval would be up to the state.
Since 2018, the Town of Sharon has been unsuccessfully trying to work with Florida energy developers Next Era Energy, which is on track to build a 50-megawatt solar project off Route 20.
Under both Articles 10 and 23, there is no place for home rule; Article 23 fast-tracks the state approval process and applies many of the Article 10 standards to smaller projects.
Mr. Wingfield said it’s no coincidence that the project proposed in Middleburgh is 20-megawatts; it’s deliberate and a way to bypass local review.
Unlike the Town of Sharon and the Town of Schoharie, where a much smaller proposed solar project has also divided the community, Middleburgh has no solar law.
It’s not necessary, Mr. Wingfield has said, because under zoning law, anything not listed as a permitted use isn’t permitted—an argument that successfully stopped a much smaller project proposed at Carver Sand & Gravel about five years ago.
Even before he was elected supervisor, Mr. Laraway sat in on the Town of Schoharie’s solar discussions; he stands for home rule, he said, and promised to fight the Middleburgh project “to the end.”
“I told them I wouldn’t support it and the Middleburgh Town Board most likely wouldn’t either,” he said.
“This proposed project would destroy the Middleburgh Valley for the next 25 years…”
Again from what he learned in Schoharie, Mr. Laraway questioned the economic impact of any large-scale solar tax revenue lost through PILOTs and from homes not built because people don’t want to look at the altered view.
There’s one thing that could stop the project before it starts, Mr. Wingfield said: at the meeting at the Rod & Gun Club, ELP reps said they hadn’t yet gotten an answer from National Grid on whether they’d be able to hook into existing transmission lines.
Without that, he said, they’re likely to go away; building their own lines would make the project cost-prohibitive.
At the same time, he said, “if they get what they want from National Grid and no other major financial impediment shows up…”
Initial estimates have put the cost of the Middleburgh project at $33 million; under Real Property Tax Law, municipalities cannot tax renewable energy projects unless they vote to opt out of the law, something Mr. Wingfield said he is recommending the village, town, and school do.
The land for the proposed project is owned by David and Denise Lloyd and Scott VanKurn, Mr. Wingfield said.
The project will be discussed this Thursday when the Town of Middleburgh meets at 6:30pm at the Shelter Building.