OnForce Solar, a leading provider of solar energy systems, announced that they have completed construction on a large-scale, 2.364-MW solar array built on 13 acres of a decommissioned, capped landfill in West Nyack for the Town of Clarkstown. This solar installation is the first of its kind built on a landfill in the State of New York.
Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack said, “We are very proud to be the first municipality in New York to install a solar field on a capped landfill. Councilman Hoehmann, who first proposed this idea in 2009, town officials, our consultants H2M architects + engineers, and I have been working on this project for several years and we are excited to see it finally come to fruition.”
The solar project is a public/private partnership and under the terms of the agreement, there was absolutely no expense to Clarkstown. OnForce Solar owns the project in its entirety and has invested $6M to install, operate, and maintain the solar installation pursuant to a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Additionally, the town was reimbursed $100,000 by OnForce Solar to cover any out-of-pocket expenses.
Councilman George Hoehmann said, “Changes in state law including the net metering law and enhanced incentives made it possible to seek a public private partnership to create the first in the state large scale solar field on a landfill. The benefits are many and go far beyond environmental, to include predictability and long-term prolonged savings to one of the most volatile areas of our operational budget, namely energy costs.” “I look forward to expanding our commitment to renewable energy and seeking additional opportunities for solar in the Town of Clarkstown,” concluded Councilman Hoehmann.
The solar system integrates Orange and Rockland Utilities’ SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) monitoring system that allows the utility to remotely monitor and control the solar system. The SCADA monitoring system, part of the Smart Grid Pilot Program, adds an enhanced level of resiliency to Orange and Rockland Utilities’ grid, helping to protect the utility’s customers from catastrophic power outages. This is OnForce Solar’s sixth deployment in conjunction with a utility under a Smart Grid Program.
The 2.364 MW solar system will generate in excess of 2,800,000 kilowatt hours of clean energy per year and is expected to save taxpayers as much as $4M over the lifetime of the system. Environmentally, the system will offset 2,030 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.
“We are very excited to commission the very first PV on landfill project in the state of New York,” said Charles Feit, CEO of OnForce Solar. “Our gratitude goes out to Governor Cuomo, NYSERDA, The Town of Clarkstown and the other stakeholders that came together to make this project a reality. OnForce Solar is honored to have been an integral part of the process and we’re working on many more projects like this one across the state.”
The solar system installation was made possible, in part, through support that the Town of Clarkstown received from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) through Governor Cuomo’s NY-Sun initiative.
— Solar Builder magazine
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