BY MIKE PETTINELLA
For Video News Service
The senior project manager for EDP Renewables North America on Wednesday said the Portland, Oregon-based company will be prioritizing visual screening of the 130-megawatt Alabama Solar Park project targeted for the towns of Oakfield, Alabama and Batavia.
Rachel Smith, senior project manager for EDP Renewables North America, answering questions about the solar project on Wednesday.
Rachel Smith, speaking at a well-attended open house at the Oakfield Fire Hall yesterday afternoon, told Video News Service that 10 to 12 landowners are participating in the initiative, offering more than 2,000 acres that have been “refined .. to about 550 acres within the fence line.”
“We did do a lot of refining of the layout to be as compact as possible so that it wouldn’t be as visible to the community,” Smith said. “That being said, there are areas where we are along major thoroughfares and we are in the process of developing our visual impact analysis, which will be a part of our state application (to the Office of Renewable Energy Siting).”
Smith emphasized that EDP is committed to “focusing on those areas which the community will see” when it comes to planting of trees, bushes and grass to screen the solar panels.
“We will be doing visual renderings looking at what the vegetation should be planted in those areas so that in three to five years it won’t be as visually seen in the community …,” she said. “We have reached out to the towns (and) to other stakeholders in the community to find out which viewpoints in the community they care about the most — and then we’re going to be designing our visual screening accordingly.”
Continuing, Smith noted that a large stretch along Maple Road and Townline Road in Oakfield and leading to Alabama are “key areas” that need adequate screening, adding, “but we do have a lot of facilities that are located right in the middle of land that no one will ever see except for the landowners themselves.”
EDP Renewables is investing $117 million into the project that, according to its published information, will generate the equivalent to the consumption of more than 40,000 New York homes. The company reports that $25 million will be paid to local governments, $65 million will be paid to the landowners, and millions of dollars will be spent locally.
Construction will produce about 250 jobs, with four permanent jobs to be created. It is expected to be operational by 2028.
Smith said EDP wants to be “part of the community,” with Wednesday’s open house serving as a vehicle for the “community’s voice” to be heard in the process.
Oakfield Fire Department’s hall was full for most of the Open House that went from 4:00p.m.-7:00p.m on Wednesday.
“We’re here to inform them on what our plans are, what our mitigation measures are going to be, what studies have been done from an environmental and cultural resources perspective, and to really help people understand who we are, what we’re trying to accomplish here, and also listen to the community to hear what their concerns,” she offered.
The open house is required by New York State, she said, adding that EDP will submit its formal application to ORES by the end of the year.
When asked about solar’s place at the federal level under the new administration, Smith said the Alabama Solar Park project has been in development for a while.
“We’ve already pre-planned our finances, so I’m not too worried about this project, but we are constantly evaluating the risk at the federal level and seeing how that impacts our projects,” she explained.
Smith said the local project started as a wind venture around 2007 but developed into a solar project at the outset of this decade.
“For the last five years we’ve been signing up lands, doing wetland surveys, doing cultural resources surveys, doing geotechnical surveys so that we really understood what our constraints were,” she said. “We did that as a way to refine our layout to the point that we were able and confident enough to submit something to the state application.”
She added that EDP is looking for ways to be part of the community, whether through donations or volunteering.
“I was just at the Genesee County livestock auction, and was so excited to see those kids in 4H. We’re putting our money back into the community. We’re supporting agriculture in this community, and we really want to be a part of the community,” she added.
A representative from EDP Renewables explains the project to community members who showed up in large numbers to ask questions.
Among the many Genesee County residents at the open house was Barbie Starowitz of Byron, who has been a keen observer of a similar project in her hometown.
Starowitz said she wanted to learn specifics regarding the plantings, solar panels and whether local workers would be used during the construction phase.
“They told me that this is their first project in New York State so they are trying to research to see what is good to be planted in New York as far as vegetation to hide the panels,” she said. “Also, she (Smith) told me that as far as hiring locals, that they’re going to try and hire as many locals as possible.”
Starowitz noted that solar companies usually bring in their own people who are more experienced in this type of work.
“She (Smith) said they were going to bring in people that can stay in the area and eat in the area,” she said. “And I said, ‘Well, right now there’s a housing shortage in Genesee County, and a lot of the people at the Byron solar, I told them to go to Brockport. And that’s where many of them have been staying and living and supporting Brockport.”
For more information about Alabama Solar Park, call 716-349-1629 or send an email to AlabamaSolarPark@edpr.com.
I asked the project manger, Rachel Smith what the projects total carbon footprint is up until they start producing electricity. Because the reason for all of this is to: reduce carbon and greenhouse gases.
This includes the energy consumed for facility design, engineering, administration, legal and travel to date. All of the mining of millions of tons of raw material for steel, aluminum, glass copper and cadmium. Then the transportation energy cost to move it all to processing and refining. Then the energy cost of the actual processing into useable raw materials. Then moving it all again to be processed into finished products. Then the energy to make the finished panels, electrical control /junction boxes and the miles of plastic coated wire. The energy to prepare the site, removing anything that’s in the way and building service the service roads. Then moved again to a distribution point, then the job site and finally put in place. The energy to make deliver and install miles of chainlink fencing and landscaping. Then the final decommissioning energy costs to tear it all down at the end of its life cycle, move it all out, recycle the panels, steel, aluminum, wire, removing the service roads and finally restoring the land to back to what it was. Millions of tons to be moved multiple times all consuming massive amounts of electrical and petroleum products.
Rachel did not have the answer for me. It would seem that the beginning balance of gross energy consumed for a prospective project would be a main starting point for the project’s feasibility. Just as in accounting and calculating mechanical efficiency, you have to start with a being balance and an ending balance. I did mention to her that it is interesting that on their company website they go as far as listing the carbon footprint of a single webpage as: .214 grams. Something obscure and esoteric, yet they don’t know or won’t share/publish this projects total carbon footprints lifecycle.
I was directed to an associate of Rachel, who took my email address who assured me she would look into it and back to me.
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