COXSACKIE — The state Siting Board on Tuesday approved the application from Hecate Energy Greene for a 365-acre, $50 million solar energy project in the town.
The project, slated for land currently used for farming, would generate up to 50 megawatts of energy.
Under public service law, the Siting Board reviewed the company’s application for a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need.
Administrative Law Judge James Costello of the New York state Department of Public Service presided over the project’s review.
“Hecate Greene proposes to construct and operate a commercial-scale solar powered electric generating facility in the town of Coxsackie,” Costello said Tuesday. “The facility will be built on 365 acres of land and will generate up to 50 megawatts of electricity.”
Over 300 public comments were submitted during the review process, the majority of them negative, Costello said.
“Most of the comments oppose the project focusing on environmental, health and financial concerns, as well as impacts to the character of the community,” Costello said. “Comments in support of the project cite the economic benefits to the local community as well as broad support of renewable energy to counter the harms posed by global warming.”
One of the issues raised by town officials during the review process was the project’s impact on the viewshed. Hecate Greene agreed to increase the amount of screening vegetation to block views of the site, Costello noted.
Changes were also made to the layout with regard to wetlands, and the Department of Environmental Conservation affirmed that “the proposed alternative layout avoids or minimizes the facility’s potential wetlands impact to the maximum extent practicable,” Costello said.
The review panel concluded the project complied with state and local health and safety regulations, and that environmental concerns were “avoided, minimized or mitigated” as much as possible, including the impact on grassland bird species and agricultural resources, Costello said.
The entire site lies within the wintering habitat of the short-eared owl and the northern harrier, both of which are listed under the state Endangered Species Act, he said.
State approval of the project is contingent on several criteria the developer must meet, including use of an on-site environmental monitor to conduct daily surveys to determine how endangered birds are impacted by the construction process, and use of a 500-foot buffer around bird roosts of endangered species.
“Hecate Greene is also required to prepare a final net conservation benefit plan that requires, among other things, conservation and management of grassland habitat areas adjacent to the facility site for the life of the project,” he said.
There were also concerns filed with the state by the organization Saving Greene about the project’s impact on agricultural resources, but the review panel found the project successfully minimized, mitigated or avoided those problems, Costello said.
“Saving Greene argues that the loss of farmland, especially highly productive prime farmland during the life of the project, will result in impacts that have not been adequately addressed,” Costello said.
The review panel determined those concerns were unfounded and that any long-term impacts would be minimal after the project is decommissioned.
In its application, Hecate Greene requested a waiver of the town’s local laws prohibiting utility-scale solar projects outside commercial and industrial zones.
“The examiners recommended that the Siting Board waive those local laws as the Siting Board did previously in approving the Flint Mine Solar Project located in the towns of Coxsackie and Athens,” Costello said.
The Flint Mine Solar Project underwent a similar review and was approved by the Siting Board on Aug. 5.
Saving Greene argued the state should not waive the local laws to preserve the rural character of the community, he said.
The state must balance the needs of the local community with the state’s goal of increasing renewable energy to combat climate change impacts, Costello countered, adding the town law is “unnecessarily burdensome.”
The major concerns of opponents to the projects — visual, environmental and agricultural impacts — have been successfully minimized or mitigated, the panel determined.
Costello said the advisory panel recommended the Siting Board approve the company’s application.
Ad hoc member Daniel Kohler, the only member to vote no on the application, asked why the review panel recommended a local town law regulating glare from the project be waived.
“The Siting Board is a one-stop shopping entity — it has to apply all state and local laws. Any local or state law deemed unreasonably burdensome, it can waive. That is the standard,” Siting Board counsel Robert Rosenthal said, adding the town law would be impossible to comply with.
“If a law is not possible to meet, it is by definition unreasonably burdensome,” Rosenthal said.
Kohler also asked about concerns about the cumulative impact of the project on the surrounding community.
“The town of Coxsackie indicated that about 9% of the land in Coxsackie will be occupied by two utility-scale solar facilities — Flint Mine and Hecate Greene,” Kohler said. “The law requires that each project be looked at as an individual project, as a standalone project. Right now it is at 9%; let’s say that in a year it is 20%. Is there any point where you can say, as an examiner, that even though each project individually is putting aside enough land for the birds and maintains agricultural land, is there any point where you say everything complies with Article 10, but we have changed the character of Coxsackie?”
At some point, the Siting Board could gauge cumulative impact, but he could not identify at what point that would become a concern, Rosenthal said.
“It is definitely concerning to staff that facilities take over a town — it is not something we would take lightly and ignore,” Rosenthal said.