11-acre solar array may come to Chester
By Edie Johnson
CHESTER — The Town of Chester's planning board grappled this week with a proposal to install an array of solar panels in an 11-acre field behind the bucolic Johnson Farm.
The Siemens and SunEdison companies want to install about 50 rows of panels, or 8,172 modules, in a fenced-in, 166-acre area between Route 94 and Craigville Road. The excess electricity it produces, beyond the farm's own use, will go back on the Orange & Rockland grid and will be credited to the Palisades Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a division of Columbia University on Route 9W in Palisades. The solar farm is part of the college's efforts to combat climate change.
Some of the extra electricity will benefit homes in the immediate neighborhood, according to Amador LaPut of Fellenzer Engineering.
The agreement will be between the farm owners and Siemens, which makes the solar panels, and Sun Edison, which is handling the financial end of the lease purchase agreements.
The farm sits on the border of the Chester and Goshen town line. Orange County has made a similar agreement with Solar City to install an array behind the Orange County Emergency Services Center, with credits to be shared between county offices.
Solar panels are popping up all over the county, most commonly installed by Solar City, Sungevity, Direct Energy Solar, NYSSF New York State Solar Farm, and NRG. Some are in fields, but most are on rooftops. Residents are looking for alternatives to electric bills, which have risen 5 percent yearly on average over the past 20 years. But while some people have enough space and have opted for the ground-mount variety, no one in the local private sector has ventured an entire field full of them.
Solar farms not in town codeChester currently has no zoning code to regulate expansive solar array. The planning board is considering whether to regard it as a "light industrial" use already permitted, or to include it under agricultural and markets regulations, or send it to the zoning board of appeals for an interpretation or variance. In fact, the planning board struggled to determine whether solar farm would be considered a public or private utility.
LaPut said that since most electricity today ends up being processed through private companies, one might consider that there are no longer any public utilities.
"But what about ConEdison, who owns Orange & Rockland and has to answer to the Public Service and Utilities Commission?" planner Frank Gilbert asked.
The debate continued whether this would be a public or private installation, and where it could fit in code, or not.
While the Johnson Farm may not be located in a "scenic corridor," it still has one of the most beautiful views around. Planners say they want that view protected, for the neighbors and the general public.
Brian Hurley, solar project manager for Siemens, assured the board that from the 11-acre field inside the 166-acre farm, he could not see a single neighboring house. Several mature tree lines that buffer the field, he said, and the project itself is very low impact and earth-friendly.
The planning board agreed to serve as lead agency so that the applicants can start the paperwork required by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which can result in rebates for both the company and the farm where the panels will be located.
Planners emphasized that this would be precedent-setting, with one saying, "What might you get next, a nuclear plant, a field full of windmills?"
But planning board attorney David Donovan said the applicant still has many hurdles to jump.
"There still remains the question of what the application is, and under what code it falls," he said. "To be clear, this is new ground."
Editor's note: Reporter Edie Johnson recently installed a 35-panel ground mount on her small farm in Blooming Grove, using Sungevity as the solar company providing the installation and financing. She can be contacted at nyoffice@strausnews.com.