Solar moratorium proposed for part of Glenville

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

The solar farm on Hetcheltown Road in Glenville, which is owned by the county, is not included in the 350 acres of solar under development in town.

GLENVILLE – Glenville residents will have an opportunity at 7 p.m. April 20 to voice their opinions on a proposed law to enact a two-year moratorium on solar projects in the agricultural residential district of town.

Board member Jim Martin, who sponsored the resolution for the hearing, said there’s no opposition to solar in town, but the town needs time to finish updating its codes to better reflect the arrival of solar projects.

“There’s been a lot of work done over the last two years updating the code,” Martin said prior to the meeting.

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If enacted this would be the second moratorium on solar the town has implemented.

From July 2017 to January 2018 the town had a moratorium on solar when it created a law regulating where the projects could be located, said Supervisor Chris Koetzle.

“In that time now that we’ve created that we’ve had now proposals for 350 acres of solar in the town of Glenville,” Koetzle said. “That is a lot of solar in Glenville. I recognize and I think the board recognizes that the substation area that it is all centered around is now full and I think now at this juncture it makes sense to pause, take a moment to look at it and see where or if it makes sense to continue to do more.”

The solar farm on Hetcheltown Road that is owned by Schenectady County is not part of the 350 acres under development in the agricultural residential district of the town, Koetzle said.

Koetzle said he’s not had anyone really irate about solar in town but said there have been questions and inquiries.

The pause would also provide a good opportunity to gauge the community’s reaction to the solar projects that were approved and are under construction or in development, Koetzle said.

While the moratorium is in place the town would review other legislation used by communities and look at resources provided by the state Energy Research and Development Authority and the state Department of Agriculture and Markets.

“The Town will also conduct research on the subjects of the impacts of solar overdevelopment, the impacts of construction of additional substations, the impacts of energy use within the community and sending energy outside of the community and the impacts of solar development in agricultural districts,” the law states.

The moratorium does not apply to the following already approved projects: U.S. Light Energy at 66 Freemans Bridge Road; Active Solar at 81 Freemans Bridge Road; Active Solar at Swaggertown Road east and Active Solar at Swaggertown Road west, according to the law.

While the moratorium is in place the town will not accept any applications for solar farms, according to the law.

Reporter Shenandoah Briere can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on twitter at SB_DailyGazette.

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