Esopus solar array makes enough electricity to make town energy independent
By William J. Kemble at the Daily Freeman

ESOPUS >> Town Board members on have approved a memorandum of agreement with Central Hudson on terms that will let a planned 1 megawatt solar array put enough electricity into the grid to make the municipality energy independent.

The agreement was discussed during a meeting Monday, when Supervisor John Coutant said the documents described the accounts that would be credited when generating electricity from the transfer station on Floyd Ackert Road.

“This is used to put the calculations together for the last round of communications with (installation contractors) Sun Edison of California,” he said. “Next will be coming the contracts for us to review and take to the attorney about the actual installation project itself, which I expect to happen in the next couple or three weeks.”

The contract with Sun Edison is expected to call for construction of a 5,200-panel solar array on 4.5 acres.

Esopus currently has 62 percent of electric costs for Town Hall paid through an 80 kilowatt solar array installed four years ago on Town Hall property. Town officials now hope to have a system that will offset the cost of electricity used by the Highway Department, Water and Sewer Department, and street lights.

“(Consultant Randolph Horner) came in and took every one of the Central Hudson accounts that we pay and got the numbers off them,” said Coutant.

The project is estimated to cost $3 million but paid for by a developer who is reimbursed based on the cost of electricity before ultimately turning ownership of the system over to the town. Horner said the town is expected to become the first municipality in the state that generates has much electricity as it uses.

Horner last month said Sun Edison has been approved for $700,000 in grant funding through the New York State Energy Research Development Authority.

“The (U.S) Environmental Protection Agency has a program … advocating for using closed landfills and old industrial sites called brownfields to site solar where the land can’t be used for anything else,” he said.

“They have in hand that subsidy to apply,” Horner said. “It’s been awarded and assigned … to put with their financing to make a $3 million system work.”

For more information on this sotry read the full Daily Freeman article here.