LANSING, N.Y. — Cayuga Operating Company, LLC announced plans to construct “one of New York’s largest solar farms” at its 434-acre site in Lansing in Tompkins County.
The firm owns and operates a coal-fired plant at the location. The company is a subsidiary of Riesling Power LLC.
The proposed clean-energy project, called Cayuga Solar, will generate 18 megawatts (MWs) of solar electricity, “enough to power the equivalent of 3,100 homes,” the Cayuga Operating Company said in a news release issued Wednesday.
Cayuga Solar’s estimated construction cost is expected to top $25 million and the project could create up to 150 jobs during construction.
“New Cayuga”
The company said the development of the “large-scale” solar farm is the first phase of its multi-phase development plan for a “new Cayuga.”
It “envisions repowering the existing coal plant with cleaner and cheaper” natural gas, and ultimately creating an “energy park” on the 434-acre site to locate manufacturing and other “energy-intensive” commercial operations.
The co-location of a solar farm with an existing coal plant “represents the energy transition underway” in New York and across the United States,” Jerry Goodenough, VP of development at Cayuga Operating Company, said in the release.
“We recognize and embrace the role renewable energy will play in the better energy future we all want for New York, and this project will help keep New York on a path to achieve its stated renewable energy goals,” said Goodenough. “We see Cayuga Solar as an important part of Cayuga’s future commercial viability as well.”
The company plans to connect Cayuga Solar to the New York Independent System Operator energy grid. It is also working with the Town of Lansing on the necessary permits.
Cayuga will present the applications to the town’s planning board this month.
Company representatives said they will also participate in an upcoming request-for-proposal (RFP) process for large-scale renewable-energy purchases by the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) and New York Power Authority (NYPA).
It will also pursue bilateral negotiations with entities interested in power-purchase agreements (PPAs) for large-scale renewable-energy output.
NYSERDA and NYPA seek to enter long-term agreements in 2017 to purchase renewable energy.
Cayuga Solar is “ideally positioned” in these RFPs because the Cayuga site has two “key competitive advantages” — site control and an existing interconnection — and “can therefore move quickly to bring solar energy to the grid,” the company contended.
Cayuga Solar representatives are also in discussions with the Lansing School District and Tompkins Cortland Community College about incorporating the construction and operation of the solar farm into their school curriculums.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com