July
25,
2018
an annual report focusing on the businesses and people that drive the cny economy
Working to
solarize CNY
I
By Jason Gabak
ncreasingly in Central New York in recent years there has been an interest in and growing presence of alternative energy sources. From wind turbines to solar arrays, communities, schools, businesses and property owners have been working to implement new ways to generate energy. There are multiple reasons for this move, according to Chris H. Carrick, energy program manager with Central New York Regional Planning and Development. “New York has established a goal of 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and the state currently stands at about 28 percent,” he said. “A lot of future growth is expected to come from solar as well as landbased and offshore wind. The governor has recently announced an ambitious goal for energy storage which will encourage the growth of solar and wind at small, community and utility scales.” Already Carrick said there are some 2,000 residential solar array systems in the Solarize CNY region. Locally, communities like Skaneateles have been leading the way in these efforts. The Skaneateles Village Hall has been recognized for its focus on renewable energy. The building takes advantage of numerous renewable energy resources. From solar power to four geothermal wells, the building was recognized as the first net zero municipal building in New York, actually creating more energy than it uses. For the past several years Fesko Dairy Farm has operated a solar array on its property. The idea of introducing alternative energy at the farm began more than 15 years ago, exploring wind, but solar power was ultimately chosen. “It is becoming more and more common,” Kimberly Brayman, daughter of Chris Fesko, said. “As the technology gets better and better more and more people are doing this and we just wanted people to be able to see what we have done and give them a chance to learn more about what is
Powering up
Communities like Volney, as well as property owners, school districts and municipalities are increasingly working toward alternative energy sources with a focus on solar power to help with energy needs. Submitted photo
An aerial view of a solar farm. out there and how the technology works.” With these kinds of efforts already in place, Carrick said the idea of initiating larger scale solar projects began to take shape. For several years, Solarize CNY has been working with the five counties it encompasses including Cayuga, Onondaga, Madison, Cortland and Oswego, and 21 municipalities in each of these counties to initiate community solar projects. According to Carrick there are several benefits to this approach. Not only do projects like this allow municipalities and residents to utilize solar power, making the option more accessible for those who may not be able to install solar panels in their property, for example, it also gives these communities collective buying power, making projects more affordable due to the large-scale nature of the project. “The goal of the Solarize CNY program is to aggregate the demand of many municipalities in order to lower the costs of each participant,” Carrick said. “Abundant Solar has offered our communities a per-kilowatt hour price which is 15 to 20 percent below prevailing market prices.” Carrick said his agency has obtained funds from the U.S. Department of Energy and from the New York State Energy Re-
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search and Development Authority to help organize this initiative and provide free technical and legal assistance to municipalities, thus eliminating upfront costs for participating communities. Carrick said 21 municipalities will take part in this project. Currently the contractor, Abundant Solar Power, is working with each community to review the necessary contracts and documents to move the projects into the construction phase. Carrick said this also includes work with utility providers such as National Grid and NYSEG for interconnection as well as working with NYSERDA for state incentives. In Skaneateles a solar array is planned for the town’s transfer station and, in April the Skaneateles Town Board heard an update from Gillian Black of Abundant Solar Power. This project was started more than three years ago, exploring opportunities to install multiple solar arrays across Central New York, taking advantage of the large scale nature of the project to get better pricing. A number of steps still need to be taken, but Black said it has been recommended the town utilize a system known as community-distributed generation. “The town would subscribe to a portion of the system output to offset its electrical consumption,” Black said. “While stakeholders and the community at large would participate as subscribers for the balance.” Part of the study leading up to this point has been what the site might be capable of producing, which would be approximately 8.7 million kilowatt hours per year. Solar in CNY
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