OnForce Solar has 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 solar array built on a landfill in the State of New York.
“We are very proud to be the first municipality in New York to install a solar field on a capped landfill,” said Alex Gromack, Clarkstown Supervisor. “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. OnForce Solar owns the project in its entirety and has invested US$6 million 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.”
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.
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.