As expected, state OKs huge Sharon solar project

1/13/2021

By Patsy Nicosia

As expected, state OKs huge Sharon solar project

After three years, 35 pounds, and 45 minutes, East Point Energy’s plans for a 50-megawatt solar facility in the Town of Sharon got the state go-ahead Thursday.
The unanimous ruling by the state’s Siting Board made the solar project the second approved under Article 10. (See related story.)
East Point Energy’s Kris Scornavacca was jubilant in a phone call Friday, promising “a great project with jobs and new revenue.”
But Sharon Supervisor Sandy Manko, who led the battle to hold the developers accountable to local solar laws and home rule, was frustrated and disappointed.
“The Siting Board didn’t listen to us and they discounted our laws—local laws passed long before this project was even proposed to protect us from people like them,” she said.
“I knew the writing was on the wall, but still, you always hope.”
Because of COVID, the hearing was tele-conferenced; there was no opportunity for public comment.
“I had to laugh when they praised NextEra for its extensive community outreach,” Ms. Manko said, minutes after the Siting Board vote.
“They must have meant some other community. Because the only outreach I know of is the donations they made here to buy favor.”
The project first became public three years ago, in late 2017. The formal application was filed in December 2019, starting the clock ticking to a decision due no later than January 27, 2021.
The half-dozen binders of filings and documents filed with the Public Service Commission’s Siting Board and available for public review at the Sharon springs Free Library weigh about 35 pounds.
Thursday’s unanimous decision took 45 minutes.
Adminstrative Law Judge Erika Bergan, who oversaw the review, called it “robust” and “fair and open,” and after Judge Bergan ran through some of the application’s specifics, rejecting the town’s arguments that project would harm economic development, agriculture, and tourism, moved for its approval.
Casting his vote, John Rhodes, Siting Board chair, called it a “thoughtful and thorough proposal.”
But Friday, Ms. Manko was still wondering how the Siting Board could have made so monumental a decision it less than an hour; the draft they raced through, she said, was 177 pages.
“I ask myself what I could have done differently, even though I know there was nothing,” she said. “It didn’t matter what we did. They were still going to ignore our laws and home rule.”
Unless NextEra negotiates a PILOT—and so far, it hasn’t applied to the Schoharie County IDA for one--the project will be taxed at full value.
Even with a PILOT, a resolution just passed by the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors establishes $20,000 per megawatt as the minimum.
The project will involve about 350 acres of solar panels along and off Route 20: west of Beech Road to the south and to the north, at the Gilbert’s Corners end of Empie Road, land also bound by Argusville and Gilbert’s Corners Road.
According to the Siting Board Thursday, it will generate enough electricity to power 8,000 homes.
Next, Mr. Scornavacca said, East Point Energy will need to file documents detailing how they’ll actually build the project and comply with environmental and other considerations, a process that will take months, not years.
Their goal is to begin construction in late 2021 or early 2022, he said, with the facility going online in 2022.
“There’s still a lot of hard work ahead,” he said.
“Our goal has always been to develop and operate a quality project. We’re very close now. We hope to bring a lot to the community.”

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