Issue of concern to the Town
Why clear-cut 27 acres of forest when you can build a solar facility on top of the Town's landfill?
It is not financially viable to build a solar facility on the old landfill.
The closed landfill was considered, but disqualified for economic and construction reasons. A solar facility on a landfill involves much more expensive construction methods due to the sensitive permeable membrane capping the closed landfill.
Only five acres of the landfill site are suitable for solar construction.
Because of the steep terrain surrounding the landfill, the location of the cell tower and cell tower access road, only five acres of contiguous land are viable to develop as solar facility. The limited acreage on the landfill site only allow for a solar facility system size of up to 1 megawatt.
Due to the considerably smaller system size, the higher costs to build on the landfill, and the fixed costs to interconnect the solar farm to the substation (tie into the grid), the lease rate of $10,000 per megawatt (MW) would have to be reduced to $3,000 per MW to absorb all the additional costs.
-
A 1 (MW) solar facility can be constructed on the five-acre landfill site but only allow for a $3,000 per MW lease rate, representing $60,000 of income over the term of the 20-year lease.
-
A 5.6 MW solar facility can be constructed on the adjoining forested parcel. A 5.6 MW facility would generate $56,000 annual income for the town and $1,233,000 over the term of a 20-year lease.
THE GOOD NEWS
The trees that are lost on the Off Airport Road solar site will be offset by clean energy production 20 times over.
The 5.6 MW production from the solar array on the clear-cut forest site is estimated by the EPA to offset over 6,260 acres of trees in one year.
Learn more how the Town of Rochester solar farms will benefit the environment.
 |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |
The solar sites will become new grassland habitats
Click on image to see examples of pollinators that will benefit from new grassland habitats.
The Town of Rochester solar sites will be used to establish over 54 acres of new grassland habitat for endangered and native pollinators.
Flowering meadows will be planted outside of the array, in the cleared area for the solar farms, and will be seeded with bee/butterfly/humming bird mix. The new grassland habitat will benefit endangered species like the Karner Blue butterfly, honey bees, monarch butterfly, and the yellow-faced bee. Hummingbirds and all other native pollinators will benefit too!
The Town's new solar meadows will help to increase biodiversity while also producing clean and renewable power.
The fence surrounding the solar sites will have a wildlife gap help cultivate grassland species biodiversity.
Learn more about how the Town of Rochester solar farms will benefit the environment.