Village Of Hoosick Falls Looks To Town Zoning Board For Solar Farm Approval

by Alex Brooks and Deb Alter
The Village of Hoosick Falls’ solar arrays that were installed on the capped and sealed Village landfill last year and at the sewage treatment plant two years ago were discussed at the Town of Hoosick Zoning Board meeting on Monday, May 2.[private]Before proceeding with the solar project on the Village landfill in North Hoosick, the Village of Hoosick Falls and Monolith Solar applied for, and received, a building permit from the then building inspector, Ed King. At that time, there was no mention that other steps, such as going before the Zoning Board and getting their approval, had to happen. The Village’s understanding was that the building permit was all they needed to do the project.
The project is complete and is now operational. It is expected to save the Village about $45,000 per year. However, in recent months, nearly a year after the solar farm was installed, some residents have questioned whether Monolith and the Village should have secured Zoning Board approval to build and operate it. The result is that the Town of Hoosick Zoning Board is now taking a look at the project, and at the solar array at the sewage treatment plant as well.
In order to straighten the situation out, the Village and Monolith are backtracking, pulling together all the papers, applications, forms, maps, site plans, the DEC’s approval of the sealing/capping of the landfill, and other information the Zoning Board has asked for. They will also send certified letters to all property owners whose land is within 500 feet of the Village’s property line and notify the public of a public hearing on the project. The goal is to get the project approved retroactively. The Zoning Board is not looking to have the array dismantled. “We just want to get it done, but we want to follow the laws,” said Wally Sheffer, a member of the Zoning Board. “We’re here to work with you,” another said.
The solar array at the sewage treatment plant has been operational for about two years and supplies a portion of the energy needed to run the plant. Monolith Solar Company completed the building of the solar array on the landfill in March 2015, over a year ago, but it took a long time to get National Grid to hook it into the grid. This was finally accomplished last month. It has only been operational since April 19, 2016. According to Mayor Borge and Steven Erby, vice-president of Monolith, it took pulling every political string possible to get it on line, but with support from NY State and the Governor’s office, the facility is now generating low-cost electricity for the Village.
Solar farms and the zoning laws concerning them are still being developed both here in Hoosick, and across the state. When the original laws were created, only small residential solar arrays were being built, and no one had envisioned the large commercial solar farms that have begun to spring up. The issues surrounding commercial solar, including tax exemptions and zoning guidelines, are still being considered and adopted on a piecemeal basis.
Residents of Hoosick and other towns in the region have been debating the pros and cons of large commercial solar installations. Concerns about aesthetics, siting, scale, safety, benefits to the community and taxes have been at the forefront of the discussions. These concerns may be moot, however, if National Grid is uncooperative about hooking solar projects into the grid. As was the case with the Hoosick Falls project, they have been declining to upgrade their infrastructure in order to adapt for solar energy. Kevin Allard, a Hoosick resident, said that, in effect, they would be spending money to lose business, so there’s no incentive for them to upgrade. How the grid operators are going to be compensated for tying together renewable energy generators, some of which provide power intermittently, and delivering reliable power 24-7 to the consumers, has not been worked out yet. Battles between utilities and the states that regulate them are going on all across the nation.
Erby said that although the Village project is up and running, Monolith has had some trouble with National Grid on other projects. “People are always unsure of the ‘new,’ he said. “The utility companies are particularly wary because they are afraid that they will become the next phone booth.” But he predicts, “they will slowly come around when the State develops incentives for them to get on board with solar and other renewable sources of energy.”
“Renewable, non-petroleum based energy is the future,” Erby insists, “and National Grid needs to see that.” It may be that until a new model is developed, National Grid and other public utilities may be dragging their feet about adding solar farms to their energy generation portfolio. For those itching to get projects underway, this can be enormously frustrating. But others see it as a reprieve, time for municipalities and states to consider the impacts solar farms will have on their communities, and create local laws that will protect neighbors from negative effects while delivering to the community the benefits of the clean cheap electricity that solar provides, while states devise regulations that work for both solar developers and grid operators.[/private]