Solar Power Generation in NYS Up About 800 Percent

By BRIAN MOLONGOSKI
Empire Farm & Dairy magazine
 
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the amount of solar power in New York state increased by roughly 800 percent between 2011 and 2016.
 
Between those years, 64,926 solar projects were built, with a nearly 744-megawatt output combined.
 
The north country has seen 1,063 new solar projects developed within that time period, totaling a little over 13 megawatts. Regionally, Long Island saw the highest solar energy development with 24,428 installations.
 
Spurring development of those projects in the last few years, said Cuomo, is his Reforming the Energy Vision strategy and the Clean Energy Standard, which aims to power half of New York state with renewables by 2030.
 
Solar energy developers also are able to leverage state funding through the $1 billion NY-Sun Megawatt Block Incentive program, which will help fund projects until 2023 with a goal of producing a combined 3 gigawatts of solar power across the state.
 
Solar projects have produced 8,000 jobs across the state, according to the governor’s office.
 
Some of the north country’s most notable solar projects of recent years include Davidson Automotive Group’s array off outer Washington Street in Watertown.
 
The company installed a ground-mounted solar array roughly the size of two football fields in 2014, and a roughly 2,000-panel expansion to the array was built last year, bringing the total to around 5,500 panels - one of the largest arrays in the region. The new array will provide clean, renewable energy to the car dealership and save an estimated $1 million in expenses over the next 20 years.
 
The project, completed by High Peaks Solar, received $225,000 from the NY-Sun initiative’s $1 billion funding pool.
 
In Cape Vincent, National Grid connected the 140-kilowatt municipal solar array to the grid back in November after re-evaluating its infrastructure.
 
Last year, Clayton-based Fourth Coast Inc. oversaw construction of the $267,000 array, which lies next to the village’s sewer treatment plant. The village received about $46,000 in rebates to help fund the project.
 
Indian River Central School District recently brought its 2,112-panel, 0.68-megawatt array late last year, following a long review process by National Grid, which was pushed back multiple times and cost the district thousands of dollars.
 
The array was installed at Indian River Intermediate School, which will now be completely powered by solar energy. The project cost roughly $1.3 million, with panel installation beginning in 2010 through 2015.
 
In the city of Ogdensburg, a solar array on Champlain Street has been brought online in pieces over the last few months.
 
The array is currently operating at 80 percent capacity, and it won’t be fully energized until the technology that connects the array to its power substation moves out of its beta testing phase.
 
The 1.1-megawatt photovoltaic system at the city’s former landfill site is projected to generate as much as a third of the electricity needed to power city government buildings.
 
The Ogdensburg array covers about eight acres of land and is expected to save the city more than $2 million on its municipal power bill over the 25-year life of the project. At the end of the 25 years, the city can take over the array, enter into a new contract with the operator, or choose to have it removed at no expense.
 
The project’s construction was funded with NY-Sun money.
 
Farther south in Lewis County, a solar project in Lowville is expected to be completed in 2017.
 
Greenskies Renewable Energy is to construct a 2-megawatt solar array on about 19 acres behind the county Public Safety Building on outer Stowe Street, then sell relatively low-cost power. The energy will be enough to cover roughly half the needs of the county and hospital for 20 years.

Morrisville Energy Tour Set for Aug. 17

Anyone interested in alternative technologies in energy and power should come out for a self-drive tour from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 17 in the Madison and Oneida counties area.

Cornell Cooperative Extension Oneida County and Morrisville College will host and offer this self-drive tour, which begins at Cornell Cooperative Extension, 100 Eaton St., Morrisville.

Topics explored include: agricultural biomass sources, including industrial hemp, used as food, feed, fiber, and fuel stocks; large and small scale wind; solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies; aquaculture and aquaponics facilities and the newly constructed Mesonet Weather Station.

Registration is required (the $10 fee includes lunch) and must be received by Aug. 12. Pay and register online at: https://reg.cce.cornell.edu/energytour_230 OR send check payable to “CCE ONEIDA” and mail to CCE Oneida, 121 Second St. Oriskany, NY 13424. Please make memo note on check “MORRISVILLE ENERGY TOUR”

Solar Farm Supplies Power To Ag Experiment Station

From Cornell University:

Cornell University’s Sutton Road Solar Farm is now operational and supplying power to the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva.

A 2-megawatt energy facility that will offset nearly 40 percent of the annual electricity demand at the experiment station, the solar farm in Seneca was built beginning last spring and is Cornell's second megawatt-scale solar project.

In September 2014, the university opened the Cornell Snyder Road Solar Farm with 6,778 photovoltaic panels on an 11-acre plot that adjoins the Tompkins County Regional Airport in Lansing, Tompkins County.  Adding the new Geneva array to the Lansing facility’s output, the university will produce about 5,700 megawatt-hours of electricity annually. 

“Our researchers are conducting basic and applied research to improve crops and make them more resilient to disease, drought and the worst effects of an uncertain climate as we chart a more sustainable agricultural future,” said Susan Brown, the Goichman Family Director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. 

"Within our fruit and vegetable programs we’re studying the best way to harvest the sun, so it is only fitting that the energy powering our labs and greenhouses will do the same,” she said.

In September 2014, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced NY-Sun awards for large solar electric projects that will increase the solar energy capacity in the state by more than 214 megawatts, a 68 percent increase over the amount of solar installed. The NY-Sun Initiative strove to expand the state’s renewable energy market to bring down the costs of the technology.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority administers the NY-Sun awards, and it contributed about one-third of the project’s capital cost, while private developer Distributed Sun and Building Energy Asset Management LLC will own and operate the Geneva array. 

Jeff Weiss ’79 is co-chairman and managing director at Distributed Sun. Cornell will purchase the solar farm’s electricity through an agreement with the company.

Morrisville State College Continues to Grow its Ag Offerings

Kara Budinock, of Wolcott, Wayne County, a recent graduate of Morrisville State College’s horticulture floral design program, prepares poinsettias for a sale at the college. Horticulture students grow the colorful flowers to sell for the holidays.

Morrisville State College was founded in 1908 to provide agriculture and technology education for men and women.
 
More than 100 years later, its focus hasn’t changed.
 
Today, though, there are many more subject areas Morrisville students can delve into and several more degree options than in the early 1900s. In fact, in the past 20 years, the college that started by offering only two-year associate degrees has expanded to include four-year courses of study and bachelor’s degrees.
 
“We began by offering ag degrees for men and home economics for women,” said Christopher Nyberg, dean of the School of Agriculture, Sustainability, Business and Entrepreneurship at 

Morrisville State. He said these days, men and women enroll in ag programs, from ag mechanics and engineering to equine science, aquaculture and renewable energy.
 

Morrisville State students receive direction from their professor during a solar panel installation in the community in the agriculture department’s renewable energy program.

Morrisville has a total enrollment of 2,800, with about 950 students studying in the School of Agriculture, Sustainability, Business and Entrepreneurship.
 
Morrisville prides itself on preparing students for the real world. Many degree programs allow students to graduate and then immediately start their own business or fit nicely into another business.
 
For example, men and women in the dairy science program not only learn how to care, milk and feed cows, they are taught how to run a dairy business. Nyberg said if they see milk production is down in the herd, they check all the statistics of what and how much the cows are eating and drinking and try to devise solutions to increase milk production.
 
“It’s a good ag-based school with a close-knit group of people,” said Kara Budinock, 20, of Wolcott, Wayne County, who received her associate degree in greenhouse production in May and will return to school in the fall to work on her bachelor’s in horticulture business.
 

Joelle Detrick, who graduated from Morrisville in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business development, gives a bath to one of the college’s Holsteins.

Budinock said Morrisville students get their hands dirty and have wide experiences in their chosen field.
 
“I loved the hands-on work,” she said.
 
One of the newest programs at Morrisville expands on the college’s ag programs to take in the local hops industry and craft brewing of beers.
 
Nyberg said a state grant and collaboration with Steve Miller, Cornell’s hops specialist for the state, resulted in:
 
** Morrisville housing a hops picker on campus (in a permanent enclosure designed and built by Morrisville students).
 
** The school’s ag students helping to rebuild the picker.
 
** Morrisville ag students designing and building their own hops picker, which will be used at the Geneva Experiment Station for its hops harvest this year.
 
** An agreement to build a brewery — in addition to the college’s restaurant, the Copper Turret — on campus so that local hops and barley can be used to create craft beers.

“Craft brewing and the craft beverage industry are growing,” Nyberg said. “There is an increasing demand for ag products for these, such as all the local barley and malt and hops.”
 
With this expansion, Morrisville students in the new Brewing Studies Program will be at the forefront of learning about brewing beer, growing hops and barley, and working in the brewing industry.
 
Bids for the brewing equipment and the design of the Copper Turret expansion are being sought. 

Nyberg said the Brewing Studies Program should be running for the 2016-17 academic year and will offer a certificate program with options in associate and bachelor’s degree programs.
 
Morrisville State also has been expanding its renewable energy curriculum, Nyberg said. Students are able to learn about solar, wind, hydroelectric, bioenergy and geothermal energy from installation of these systems to their design, operation and maintenance.
 
He said the college — which has had a methane digester for about 10 years to extract gas from cow manure to make electricity for the campus — will be getting a new digester that will use not only animal waste, but food waste also.
 
“We will take food waste from neighboring campuses (including Colgate University, Hamilton College and Cazenovia College) and other small agriculture industries and add it to our waste,” Nyberg said. “We can use that to generate heat and power for our campus, and it helps by keeping this waste out of the landfills.”

The agricultural degrees offered in Morrisville State College’s School of Agriculture, Sustainability, Business and Entrepreneurship:

ASSOCIATE DEGREES
Agriculture business
Agriculture engineering
Agriculture mechanics
Agriculture science
Animal science
Aquaculture and aquatic science
Equine racing management
Equine science and management
Horticulture
 
BACHELOR DEGREES
Agriculture business development
Dairy management
Equine science
Horticulture business management

Information Session on Solar Energy June 20 in Spafford

Come to Solarbration from 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday June 20 at Fesko Farms, 1181 Woodworth Road, in Spafford.

The event is being held for farmers and business owners so they can learn how solar power can reduce energy costs. Topics include construction, financing, incentives and sustainability.

In addition to information on solar, there will be locally made cheeses and other products and New York wines available.

The event is free.

Bill Would Help NY Dairy Farmers Become Energy Efficient

News from state Sen. Patricia Ritchie:

The state Senate has approved a bill that would provide grants and low interest loans to dairy farms that make energy efficient improvements. 

The measure, Senate bill 2984, is part of Sen. Patricia Ritchie’s “Grown in New York” plan, a multi-part initiative designed to help meet consumers’ demands for locally-grown food, support local farmers in their efforts to provide quality, fresh food, and strengthen rural communities.

“Controlling energy costs on the farm is one of the keys to being successful in the agriculture industry, especially for dairy farmers,” said Ritchie, R-Oswegatchie, who chairs the Senate’s Agriculture Committee. 

Under the measure, dairy farmers will be able to apply for grants or loans of up to $100,000 for cost effective investments that reduce energy use including the installation of solar technology and construction of new digesters. 

According to the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, milk is New York’s leading agricultural product, with sales accounting for one-half of total agriculture receipts.  In 2012, production was 13.2 billion pounds with a preliminary value of $2.56 billion.

The measure was sent to the Assembly, where its sponsored by Assembly Agriculture Committee Chair William Magee, D-Nelson.