On Wednesday night the Byron Town Board announced a large scale solar project the size of the Bergen Swamp that is expected to begin commercial operation in late 2022.
The proposed Excelsior Energy Center is a 280 megawatt solar facility that will be accompanied by 20 megawatts of storage capability. The largest project in the state will take up about 1,500-2,000 acres of land according to Felipe Oltramari, Director of the Genesee County Department of Planning.
“It will be near the main transmission powerlines that go through Byron,” says Oltramari.
“There is a lot of capacity here for the project. This is the cheapest way to do it without adding infrastructure. There is open land, incentives from the state, electrical capacity through the mains, a lot of what the company is looking for.”
Because of the size of the project, and that the project is a major electric generating facility larger than 25 megawatts, NYSERDA can authorize the construction under NYS’s Article 10 law.
This is the first Article 10 project in Genesee County.
Article 10 overrides the town zoning laws. “You no longer have to go through the local zoning process,” says Oltramari.
“It’s a decision made at the state level.”
According to NYSERDA, On August 4, 2011, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law Chapter 388 of the Laws of 2011 that enacted Article 10 of the Public Service Law.
Article 10 provides for the siting review of new and repowered or modified major electric generating facilities in New York State by the Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment (Siting Board) in a unified proceeding instead of requiring a developer or owner of such a facility to apply for numerous state and local permits.
The Siting Board will be made up of seven people. Five approved by the governor and two ad hoc members that are locally nominated by the County and Town.
The public can participate in an Article 10 decision making process by offering support, voicing concerns, asking questions about public health and safety and other factors.
An Article 10 has a four step process. The company at this point, has not started Step 1, which is setting up a public involvement program which requires the company to have in place for 150 days before submitting their preliminary scoping statement and official application to the Siting Board.
Step 2 is the Preliminary Scoping Statement which includes information about the project, including a description of the proposed facility, potential environmental and health impacts, proposed studies to evaluate those impacts, proposed mitigation measures and alternatives to the project.
In Step 3, a formal Article 10 application is submitted to the Siting Board. There is more detail on the project in the application.
In Step 4, the Siting Board makes its final decision on the project on whether to issue or deny the certificate within 12 months of the date that the developer’s application is deemed complete.
According to Oltramari, the project will be using a lot of farm land in Byron. The large scale solar project will be located along the current electric lines that begin in the Bank street area and extend to Ivison road.
According to Byron Town Supervisor Roger Rouse, the 11,859 acres used for agricultural purposes and the population of the Town of Byron has remained the same over the last 40 years, about 2, 315 residents.
“It would benefit some farms, it would give them a steady income. Then they don’t have to spend for more hay, seeds or feed. It would be, here’s a check for the land we are leasing every year,” says Rouse.
The County is concerned about agriculture protection with a project this size.
“Our biggest concern is our loss of farm land,” says Oltramari.
“We have taken a lot of effort for many years to promote our agricultural farmland. The world as a whole only has 8% prime farm land, our county is blessed with over half of our land as prime farm land, we are the bread basket for the world, not only for NYS. These types of soils are unique and rare worldwide.”
Oltramari says he understand the draw as most farmers who are leasing their land right now can barely pay the taxes on that piece of property.
“Ultimately, its the landowner making a decision on how to use their land and what is more profitable to them, but as a whole we are going to be losing, for at least 30 years or longer, land that is very good at producing crops. That is a concern.”
Landowners in Byron have been contacted by several solar companies out of Florida looking to lease their farmland for solar projects
NextEra Energy Resources is proposing the Excelsior Energy Center.
A two page fact sheet was submitted to the Town and County that spell out some benefits of the project.
The project would bring benefits to the area through a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreement.
Jim Krencik, Marketing and Communications Director for Genesee County EDC, explained during the meeting on Wednesday night the benefit of a PILOT.
“It allows a project that is launching to have their start up costs covered for a set term usually ten years,” says Krencik.
“They would start off a low local tax payment , then ramp up to full assessment. The idea is that a business has high start up costs early on and this gives them a bit of a financial break.”
NextEra Energy Resources states its goal is to hire as many workers as possible from the local area where they will be constructing the project, with plans to invest up to 40 million in construction labor, creating 300-350 construction jobs.
3-4 full time positions will be created for the 30 year life of the project.
NextEra Energy is headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida and owns two electric companies, Florida Power & Light Company, which serves more than five million customers in Florida and Gulf Power Company, which serves more than 460,000 customers in eight counties throughout northwest Florida. NextEra Energy also owns an energy business, NextEra Energy Resources, LLC. Along with its affiliated entities it is the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun and a world leader in battery storage according to the company website.
According to the NextEra Energy Resources Fact sheet, The Town of Byron possesses the critical elements of a strong solar project. Existing transmission infrastructure, adequate sunlight, existing road infrastructure, suitable and available land for the project and no significant environmental constraints.
“NextEra Energy Resources is looking forward to working with the Town of Byron to develop the Excelsior Energy Center. This project will bring significant economic benefits to the region, including construction jobs and increased revenue for the community and will generate clean, renewable energy for New York,” says Lisa Paul, Spokesperson for NextEra Resources.
The other company that is looking to piggyback off the large scale project is Origis Energy.
Headquartered in Miami, FL, Origis Energy USA says it delivers excellence in solar and energy storage development, financing, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and operations, maintenance and asset management for investors and clean energy consumers across Europe and the Americas.
According to the Origis Energy website, they have a solar track record of more than 100 projects worldwide totaling over 1 GW to date of developed solar capacity.
I hope that the PILOT is sufficient to the Town for the loss of productive farm land into an Industrial/Utility. Taking up to 2,000 acres out of production, to enrich families for the next 20 to 40 YEARS is really a shame. Take notice that any project over 25 megawatts comes under the “control” of the “State”. The idea of Solar may sound great, but –again–take notice, this project takes all of that PRODUCTIVE land out of use– to grow FOOD.