In 2019, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) into law. This landmark document signaled the state’s commitment to fighting the growing Climate Emergency. Environmental groups were in unison, praising the language of the CLCPA which created “mandates” (authoritative commands or requirements) and not “goals” (an objective that someone is trying to achieve) that have been common in local, regional, and international agreements. Overlooked during the celebrations of the CLCPA was that it was a framework and not a roadmap to making these changes happen to reduce carbon emissions in industry, transportation, and buildings and transition to zero emissions energy sources.
The legislation to flesh out that roadmap was once again held by the leadership in the New York Assembly. The legislative failures, which have been more pronounced since Governor Kathy Hochul took office, are only part of the reason that a recent report from the New York State Energy Research and Development (NYSERDA) noted that the state will fail to meet the mandated CLCPA targets for 2030. Unplanned demand from sources like data centers for cryptocurrency and AI applications are also a huge reason for this, and COVID affected the implementation of many projects due to the costs of financing and the availability of labor in 2020 and 2021.
Although their implementation is much faster than the addition of a new nuclear facility, both the larger footprint and the emphasis on minimizing ecological impacts adds to the long lead times to plan, permit, and build new wind and solar projects. Previous permitting procedures kept larger projects at bay for nearly a decade, but the passage of the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act in 2020 formalized and streamlined the review process. It is still a years-long process – a timetable that makes the 70% renewable energy mandate by 2030 impossible without an immediate push by the state, but has moved projects like Heritage Wind in Orleans County closer to reality.
Apex Clean Energy, the developer of the Heritage Wind project, recently held a landowner meeting to review the progress on the project. This project, originally started under the old Article 10 regulations, was transferred to the new review process under the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) in 2021 and was the first under the ORES review to be approved in January, 2022. After approval, the project is subject to a public comment period, secondary review and modifications, before a final approval is received before construction. The give and take has taken over two years, but the last minor amendments to the site plan will soon be submitted for final state approval.
Once approved, construction of a project like this involves considerable preliminary work, including the construction of access roads and wiring connections from the towers to the transformers and the electric grid. This, as well as the pouring of the concrete anchoring bases for the towers, is expected to take up the entire 2025 construction season. According to the Apex team, the tower installation is the quickest step in the process, with installation expected within a week of the delivery of the turbine and blades for the tower. One to two turbines are expected to be installed per week and the 28 wind turbines are expected to be installed and operational by October, 2026.
This will be, by far, the largest investment in the Town of Barre and is a huge benefit for the local taxpayers. Under the ORES process, projects enter into a Host Community Agreement. For this project, it is an influx of $850,000 annually to the Town of Barre, with additional PILOT payments to Orleans County, the Albion School district, and the Town of Barre Fire District. One of the new additions to the agreement is a utility bill discount for Town of Barre residents that was approved by the Public Service Commission for hosting the project.
To make the most out of the New York State legislation from 2023 that prohibits natural gas hookups in new construction, decarbonizing the electric grid with projects like Heritage Wind is imperative to meet the CLCPA carbon reduction mandates. Opposition in local communities has slowed progress on the necessary transition to zero-emissions power generation. But with more projects like this demonstrating the benefits to host communities, it should ease the transition needed from the polluting energy sources of the 20th century to the cleaner sources of the 21st century.
Barre is well outside the Buffalo suburbs, but the topic of hosting a renewable energy project is one that many WNY communities will be dealing with in the near future, and they should be aware of the benefits to the host community. If multiple acre solar projects can go into first ring suburbs like Amherst and Cheektowaga/Depew, as well as in Buffalo, they can go anywhere.
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