GreenSpark Solar installs a 1.5MW solar array at towns capped landfill to supply energy for all municipal loads
Ontario, NY – Williamson (NY) is making history. Known as the core of Wayne County, with its vast farmland and ample apple farms, Williamson is now the first town in New York State to be 100% powered by solar. GreenSpark Solar, an Ontario, NY-based company, completed the installation of a 1.5 megawatt (MW) solar array for the town, in December 2014, that will supply all municipal loads with solar-powered electricity.
Williamson not only became the first town in the state to become 100% solar-powered, the 1.5MW solar array, located on the town’s capped landfill, is also the largest solar array in the Greater Rochester Area. The town is taking advantage of otherwise useless land, bringing the concept of recycling to a whole new level. The landfill, located on Pound Road, would have sat idle if GreenSpark Solar and the Town of Williamson hadn’t come together on this project. GreenSpark Solar brought in its partner Namaste Solar, to help deal with the complications of putting solar energy on a capped landfill and to complete the complicated construction process.
“This is a very forward-thinking project,” saidGreenSpark Solar CEO Kevin Schulte. In 2012, Schulte and Williamson Town Supervisor Jim Hoffman started the discussion about using the landfill to build a solar array, to power the Motts Plant located across Pound Rd. from the landfill in Williamson. Hoffman, not new to solar projects having already orchestrated installations at the town hall and the wastewater treatment plant, suggested using the capped landfill for the town instead. The discussion was carried forward by the Town’s Energy Committee, and the rest is history. “This is a great project, people are excited, the community is talking, the potential for solar energy at homes, businesses, and municipalities is spreading and we’re excited to see this growth right here in our backyard,” said Schulte. “And really, the economics of this project just made sense for the town, which in large part is due to the available grants and incentives available in New York, coupled with the partnership with Kenyon Energy.”
The project is owned by Kenyon Energy, through a power purchase agreement in which the town pays 8.5 cents per kWh to Kenyon for the electricity the town uses. The Town can now predict its electricity prices for the next 25 years. As electricity prices in New York State continue to increase and become more volatile, the Town will benefit even more. After six years, the town will have the option to buy the project and receive even more savings in its electric bill.
GreenSpark Solar applied for and received a grant on behalf of the town through the NY-Sun initiative, which is run by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and is part of Governor Cuomo’s commitment to protecting the environment and lowering energy costs for all New Yorkers, by improving the efficiency and reliability of the electric grid. This commitment expands the clean energy economy in New York,
creating local jobs.
GreenSpark Solar is just the start of the local aspect of the Williamson Solar Project.GreenSpark Solar hired Grandpa’s Nursery and Garden Center out of Sodus, NY to perform all the civil work on the project (mowing, gravel, road crossing berms, etc.). Grandpa’s is not new to solar projects either; GreenSpark Solar installed a 55kW array at the Nursery in the fall of 2014. Schuler Haas, a Rochester based company, was contracted to perform electrical work on the project. And the racking came from RBI Solar, which hired a large number of local workers to help install the system. Finally, GreenSpark Solar has provided educational tools to the students from the Wayne-Finger Lakes Board of Cooperative Educational Services program, in an effort to continue the growth of solar locally.
“Building renewable projects locally and educating our community on the potential for local projects has always been our goal,” noted Schulte. “We won’t be satisfied until every home is covered in solar panels and every local business and town takes advantage of the wind and solar potential here in our backyard and beyond.”
