Plans for massive 300 MW solar farm in Montgomery County blindside residents - WRGB

Plans for massive 300 MW solar farm in Montgomery County blindside residents

CANAJOHARIE, NY (WRGB) — Around the Capital Region, large-scale solar farms are in the works. Among the biggest is a whopping 300-Megawatt solar project planned in Montgomery County.

On Thursday, a presentation was held in Canajoharie.

But many who came out to the presentation, left unhappy– with some learning for the first time that a massive 300-MW solar farm, spanning a large portion of Canajoharie and the town of Root, could soon be part of the landscape.

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“They’re destroying the beautiful countryside,” said Robert Moore, a student at Canajoharie High School.
“They have a big map of all these different projects and when you look at this map you’re like, God, I’m being blind sided,” he added.

Others were disappointed over how it was presented as some were expecting a formal presentation. Instead, those who came were greeted with a room full of informational poster boards. Comment cards were available for any comments and questions.
“It’s huge. I didn’t realize how large it was, like that’s not spelled out in the information that was provided to us in the mail to come tonight, so when I looked at the map, this goes miles,” said Carol Anne Hammons, Canajoharie resident. “I’m uneducated in it so I really didn’t know what to ask or what benefits we have at Canajoharie for allowing this to come into our community.”

This 300 MW solar farm is estimated to generate enough electricity per year to power 59,000 homes, according to Cordelio Power, the company behind the colossal solar project.

Tim Vought, Vice President of Development with Cordelio Power, felt Thursday’s presentation offered people more opportunities to get their questions answered since company representatives were available for one-on-one dialogue for anyone with questions.

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Thursday’s presentation is one of the first steps for Cordelio Power to get a permit from the state under a new state law known as article 94c, which was passed in 2020 to streamline the permitting process for large, renewable energy facilities.
“The process that we have to involve is that we have a project application that needs to be submitted with enough details to show the potential impacts of the facility and we have to explain what we’ve done to try to minimize and avoid impacts,” said Tim Vought, Vice President of Development with Cordelio Power.

Under this process, solar projects larger than 25 MW need approval from the state Office of Renewable Energy Siting, also known as ORES. Smaller projects would still use local siting procedures.

Even if the majority of the community don’t want to see the project happen, approving the project will ultimately be up to the state.

“The towns each have or are in development of existing ordinances to regulate solar facilities, but at the ultimate end of the process ORES will be issuing the approval for the project,” said Vought.

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Vought admits this project will be significant in size, but it seems local farmers are on board to lease their land to the solar company.

CBS 6 asked how much consideration is placed on the surrounding communities' concerns.

“There is a process we need to follow to make sure that we don’t have an adverse impact on the environment and the community,” Vought said.

“All of the comments we do take back and we look at our plans and make sure we minimize the impact people are concerned about,” he added.