ABOUT THE SOLAR PROJECT
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Illinois-based Hecate Energy received a draft permit from ORES on October 25, 2023 to build a 267-acre, 60-megawatt solar facility near New York State Route 23, Route 7 and Route 11A in Craryville, a hamlet of Copake, NY. This industrial-sized facility will also impact the towns of Hillsdale and Taghkanic, as well as the Taconic Hills Central School District and Copake Lake areas.
However, on January 2, 2024, 60 acres of farmland that was supposed to be part of the Shepherd’s Run Solar project was sold and the new owner has stated it will not be leasing the land to Hecate for the project. The Property is proposed to host about 20% of the entire Project’s solar panels, a laydown area, and the sole access road for adjacent facility parcels, among other components.
The Project must be redesigned. Hecate claimed in its Application in MULTIPLE places that such a redesign like the one now required, and these are Hecate’s own words: “would prohibit the construction of the Project altogether.”
We believe that Hecate’s incompetence in managing a simple lease renewal, and their failure to disclose this information to ORES, the public, and Town officials is a clear sign that they do not operate with transparency, and should not play any role in NY’s energy plans.
WE SUPPORT SOLAR
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Project Overview: The Facts |
In 2020, Hecate Energy informed the Town of Copake that the Illinois-based company was advancing a solar facility – known as “Shepherd’s Run Solar Farm” – in Copake and Craryville, NY, and would use New York State’s Article 10 to bypass Copake’s zoning law that limits the size of solar installations to 10 acres. The Article 10 process would have at least required a siting board comprised of political appointees and community representatives to decide each project’s fate. Hecate began the permitting process under Article 10.
However, in May 2021 Hecate Energy announced it would seek approval of its “Shepherd’s Run” solar project through New York State’s recently enacted Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act – known as 94-c – an accelerated process for approving large-scale solar and wind facilities that is much more favorable to developers than Article 10. 94-c effectively takes away all manner of local input and decision making, and hands it to a single office reporting to the Governor, the Office of Renewable Energy Siting, or ORES.
Hecate Energy’s track record tells us that should the Shepherd’s Run solar project be approved by the ORES, Hecate will most likely sell the project to a third party. Furthermore, it was recently announced that Repsol, an energy company based in Spain, purchased a 40 percent stake in Hecate Energy with an option to buy the remaining 60 percent in three years. This is all evidence that Hecate Energy does not care about Copake, Columbia County, and the Hudson Valley region.
Copake’s Town Board unanimously passed a resolution in October 2020 acknowledging the urgency of climate change and supporting renewable energy, but opposing the construction of Shepherd’s Run for, among other reasons, its scale and the fact that the proposed project is in violation of the Town’s zoning law. In May 2021, the Columbia County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution also opposing Hecate Energy’s proposed solar facility. Additionally, more than 4,000 residents of Copake and Columbia County have signed a petition opposing “Shepherd’s Run” as currently proposed. In 2022, the towns of Hillsdale, Claverack, and Taghkanic also passed resolutions opposing Shepherd’s Run as currently proposed. In February 2023, the Hudson City Common Council passed a resolution opposing Shepherd’s Run until Hecate can provide evidence that the construction of Shepherd’s Run and, once constructed, the presence of Shepherd’s Run will not negatively impact the Taghkanic Creek Watershed, or the water quality in the City of Hudson or any Columbia County town.
Despite calls from the Town of Copake, Sensible Solar for Rural New York and others, Hecate Energy refuses to sit down with the Town to negotiate and advance a solar project that complies with Copake’s zoning laws and respects the community’s natural resources, farmland, wildlife and habitats, rural viewsheds, property values, and tourism- and agriculture-dependent economy.
Concerns about the one-sided 94-c permitting process led to a lawsuit, with the Town of Copake as lead petitioner.
On June 29th, 2021, the Town of Copake , as lead petitioner for a group of 12 towns and conservation organizations (Town of Yates, Town of Farmersville, Town of Cambria, Town of Malone, Town of Somerset, Cambria Opposition to Industrial Solar, Save Ontario Shores, American Bird Conservancy, Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society, Genesee Valley Audubon Society, Clear Skies Above Barre, Inc., and Rochester Birding Association) , filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court of Albany County against ORES over the 94-C siting process for industrial wind and solar facilities. The Town of Copake and the other plaintiffs engaged Benjamin Wisniewski of Wisniewski Law PLLC. For more details on the ongoing lawsuit, click HERE.
On October 7, the Court issued an order dismissing the lawsuit. Read the full decision HERE.
Copake and plaintiffs filed an appeal to the Appellate Division, Third Department on August 2, 2022. Read the press release HERE. Read the full brief HERE.
The appeal was heard on Monday March 27, 2023 and on May 18, 2023, the appeal was denied. Read the Court’s decision HERE .
Why Craryville/Copake, NY?
 The Craryville/Copake, NY site was chosen for reasons that benefit Hecate, not the residents and annual visitors to this part of the Columbia County countryside throughout the year. Craryville has an existing electrical substation that makes the interconnection to transmission lines very advantageous (ie, cost effective) to the developer. Also, the 900-acre parcel of land that Hecate needs to purchase is owned by very few landowners, making their acquisition simple and quick. |
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 Hecate’s track record has shown that they will prioritize their own interests over all else. In early 2018 local residents of Greene County, NY became aware that nine utility-scale solar plants had been proposed for the town, including two facilities being sited under Article 10 of the NY Public Service Law. Proposed for an area of over 800 acres of active farmland, Hecate’s 50-MW facility would comprise 185,000 panels covering 400 acres of the site, along with inverters, substations, fencing, security lighting, access roads, and collection/transmission lines. Hecate’s Greene County Solar Facility would have a nameplate capacity of 50 megawatts of energy that wouldn’t even be sold locally.According to current project maps, panels would be placed directly on wetlands as well as on prime farmland and farmland of statewide importance. The rest of the site includes more wetlands, woods, and habitat for endangered and threatened species. Up to 100 acres of the site might be kept in agricultural production.
All of this land is surrounded by residential and rural residential neighborhoods, with little or no buffering between this enormous facility and nearby residences or roadways. Only the most minimal setbacks are proposed. Some landowners would have arrays located on two or more sides of their properties. The site’s rolling topography makes it particularly difficult to mitigate viewsheds. Hecate acknowledges that not all views can be remediated with installed landscaping.
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Sensible Solar of Rural NY supports the building of renewable energy solar fields in accordance with local law which allows a utility-scale solar energy system to occupy up to 20 percent of the area of the parcel on which it is located; provided, however, that the area of land used for any such system shall not exceed 10 acres.
Alternative sites for solar fields in New York state include:
- Vast acreage of non-populated areas in New York
- Decommissioned shopping malls
- Abandoned factories and plants
- Parking Lots