Project Overview

Boralex’s Fort Edward Solar project is a 100 MW photovoltaic solar energy generation facility to be located in the Towns of Fort Edward and Argyle in Washington County, New York. The project will have an estimated footprint of 750 acres, including solar arrays and other project features such as access roads, substation, and an electrical interconnection to the National Grid 115kV circuit. The project was originated in 2019 by Boralex.

The facility is expected to be commissioned in Q4 2025. Boralex is in the process of developing all studies, supporting materials, and applications required to complete the permitting and interconnection approval requirements.

The project aligns with the New York State Public Service Commission’s Clean Energy Standard, which supports the development of clean energy and renewable resources in New York State (NYS). The Fort Edward Solar Project has been chosen as part of the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) 2021 solicitation for Tier-1 eligible renewable energy certificates. This a significant milestone in the development of the project, as it begins a process for Boralex and NYSERDA to execute an agreement to purchase the renewable energy that will be generated at the facility.

Permitting Process

Boralex continues to engage with the public and the local community (e.g. landowners, town and county representatives, state officials, school districts and groups of interest) and will pursue this consultation process throughout all phases of development and operations.

Environmental and permitting activities began in Q4 2020 and will be governed under the new 94-c state permitting process through the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES). Permitting activities are expected to span throughout 2023. All project infrastructure will be situated in such a manner as to respect municipal, state, and federal regulations as well as taking into consideration feedback from residents and other stakeholders.

Project Benefits

The Project will offer significant economic, social, and environmental benefits to New York State (NYS), Washington County, the Town of Fort Edward, the Town of Argyle and the local School Districts, including:

• Create approximately 120 jobs during construction;
• Create long-term jobs to support operations and maintenance;
• Boost local economy and add commerce for local businesses during construction and operations;
• Provide significant tax revenues to the Town of Fort Edward, the Town of Argyle, Washington County and to the Fort Edward Union Free School District, Hudson Falls Central School District and the Argyle Central School District;
• Provide quiet, emission free and reliable power generation for the equivalent of approximately 28,000 NYS households per year;
• Help NYS achieve its goal of 70% clean power generation by 2030 and 100% by 2040.

To learn more about solar generation and its benefits, click here.

Surveys and Studies

Environmental field surveys and studies have been completed on the site, including: winter raptor surveys, breeding bird surveys, noise studies, archeological studies, geotechnical borings and electrical resistivity testing, as well as other environmental and technical studies. These studies and surveys are required as part of the regulatory application process described below.

Process for Renewable Energy Projects

The Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act(PDF) was passed in April 2020 as part of the enacted state budget. The provision added a new section to the Executive Law, titled Major Renewable Energy Development (“94-c”), which is intended to establish a review process with uniform permit standards for New York State renewable energy projects in place of the procedures set forth in Article 10 of the Public Service Law (“Article 10”).

The Act created a newly established Office of Renewable Energy Siting (“ORES”), within the New York State Department of State, as part of the 94-c process, to provide a central forum for the environmental review and permitting of proposed major renewable energy facilities, includes those with a nameplate generating capacity of 25 megawatts (MW) or more, co-located energy storage systems, and electric transmission lines less than 10 miles in length.

The Fort Edward Solar project will be subject to the regulations outlined in the 94-c process and Boralex intends to make an application for the Project to ORES in 2022.

Open Houses 

Boralex will hold an additional in-person open house event in late summer/fall 2023 in advance of our 94-c application. 

Boralex held a voluntary open house in Fort Edward on April 18, 2023. Our presentation materials are available here. An updated map can be found here. 

The slides for our virtual open house in May 2021 can be found here. A video of the presentation is below.

Contact

For more information and questions, please contact:

Marc Stachiw, (403) 880-4939, marc.stachiw@boralex.com

Rochelle Rumney, (365) 323-8500, rochelle.rumney@boralex.com

Members of the media, please contact Melissa Mansfield, (518) 339-7769, melissa.mansfield@boralex.com

Postal address:
39 Hudson Falls Rd.
South Glens Falls
New York, 12803