Community Meeting Information

A public meting for the Fort Edward Solar project was held on Thursday, April 18, 2024 from 5 to 8 pm at the Durkeetown Church at 2 Durkeetown Road in Fort Edward. Please see the attached presentation and fact sheet which were presented to the public at the meeting. The attached postcard was the notice for the meeting. Soon, the company will finalize and send out its 60-day pre-application notice ahead of our anticipated permit filing with the Office of Renewable Energy Siting later this year.

Project Overview

Boralex’s Fort Edward Solar project is a 100 MW photovoltaic solar energy generation facility to be located in the Town of Fort Edward 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 2027. Please see the anticipated project schedule below for additional details on the development, construction and commissioning dates. The project is anticipated to be operational for approximately 30 to 35 years once commissioned.

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).

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). 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 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, Washington County and to the Fort Edward Union Free School District and the Hudson Falls 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 the 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.

Within thirty (30) days of an application filing with ORES, any local agency or potential community intervenor may submit a request for initial funding from the Local Agency Account Funds. Such request shall be made to the Office of Renewable Energy Siting, at the Albany, New York office, Attention: Request for Local Agency Account Funding. Funds from the Local Agency Account may be used by local agencies and potential community intervenors that meet the eligibility and procedural requirements of the law to participate in public comment periods or hearings.

Open Houses

Boralex held a voluntary open house in Fort Edward on April 18, 2023. Our presentation materials are available here.

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 Zack Hutchins at zachary.hutchins@boralex.com or (518) 727-6155.