Solar Developer “Disinformation” Reality
17 hours ago Guest Blogger
Roger Caiazza
Charles Rotter passed along a link to an article by a solar energy developer in New York that claims disinformation campaigns were hurting New York’s implementation of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act). After I looked at the article, I can safely say that it’s another example of my pragmatic environmental principle Observation on Environmental Issue Stakeholders: The more vociferous/louder the criticisms made by a stakeholder the more likely that the stakeholder is guilty of the same thing. This post looks at disinformation claims associated with a solar development project in New York.
Hecate Energy Shepherd’s Run Solar Farm
Hecate Energy’s Shepherd’s Run is a 42 MW utility-scale solar facility located in Copake, NY in the Hudson River Valley southeast of Albany. According to Hecate: “It will be configured as a ground-mounted solar facility with PV panels on galvanized steel tracker racking structures. It will include rows of single-axis trackers, oriented in a north-south direction, that rotate the PV panels from east to west following the sun’s daily path.” They also claim that “The 42-MW solar farm is expected to annually generate approximately 70,000 MWh of energy — enough to meet the average annual consumption of over 9,500 New York households.” That works out to a capacity factor of 19.3%. The permitting documents note that the project area is 880 acres, the project footprint is 267 acres and there will be 138.3 acres “located inside the Project security fencing” which I assume means that is the area to be covered by solar panels.
This area of the Hudson Valley has attracted influential folks with money from New York City because of the beauty and rural character of the region which has led to a couple of things. I think that contributes to the attention this project has received in the national media. Bloomberg Opinion described it as “The Solar farm that almost destroyed Copake, NY”. In a Reveal podcast, The Center for Investigative Reporting also addressed the project in “Sunblocked: Resistance to Solar in Farm Country” with the byline “Across the country, rural communities are pushing back against large-scale solar development”. The other aspect of the moneyed class influence is the desire and the money to fight against anything that detracts from the reasons the “Citidiots” invaded this area.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/06/13/solar-developer-disinformation-reality/
