Hartland town board approves amended solar law

An amended solar law, as well as amendments to an energy storage batteries law, were both passed in 3-2 votes at Hartland's regular board meeting this week. Councilmen David Huntington and Joseph Reed were the dissenting votes.

In a review of the action, Supervisor Margaret Zaepfel justified the law, saying that its passage is the will of the majority in Hartland. The amended law enacts significantly more stringent laws to replace regulations passed by the previous town board under former supervisor Ross Annable's administration.

"Today we voted on the current solar law. We have listened and considered all divisions on this important law. The four board members were presented with over 365 signed petitions from the townspeople opposing the industrial solar project. In 2022 the town sent out a survey to ask the opinion of the town's residents. The results were approximately 75% against the project," she said.

According to Zaepfel, discussions on the law over the last year were "people's panels" and shouldn't be confused with an independent committee. She said that five meetings were held and the same 10 or so people came into the meetings and most were for the Ridge View Solar Project.

One such resident is Floyd Snyder, who has agreed to lease some of his land to the project. He said that the board brushed aside his and other's opinions on the matter.

"We had meetings, not many people came to them," Snyder said. "We recommended to leave the solar law alone, but they knew what they were going to do."

Currently, EDF, the solar company that proposed the Ridge View Solar Project, has not made an application to pursue the project through the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting or ORES. Zaepfel said it was withdrawn by EDF and that conversations probably won't begin again until next year with the company on the proposed project.

Kevin Campbell, development director for EDF, said that the reason for the lack of an application was that the company still needed to find landowners willing to connect the panels to the interconnection site.

"We've been here since 2019, we signed 4,000 acres of land. Of that 4,000 acres, we used 1,800 for siting the panels themselves, and then, because the project is spread out, we have to sign easements so all those lines can get to our point of interconnection. We have 60% of that land signed up," he said.

Campbell went on to say that the next opportunity to apply is in 2026 and the earliest that the interconnection is available is in 2029.

Haley Ferington, EDF community relations manager, said that gave the company and the community time to "continue to have these discussions."

Payments by EDF if the project is sited and operational is $790,000 a year to Hartland, 150% of what the town now collects in property taxes.

Approximately $360,000 a year will go to the Barker Central School District, $210,000 a year to the Roy-Hart Central School District, $260,000 a year to Niagara County and $278,000 a year to special district taxes.