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Hecate is back with a new solar facility application

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By DIANE VALDEN

COPAKE—After having its original permit application for a 60 megawatt (MW) solar facility denied in February 2024, Hecate Energy is back with another application, this one for a smaller, but still controversial industrial-scale Shepherd’s Run Solar Facility to be built on farmland in Craryville.

A Chicago-based developer of solar and wind facilities and energy storage projects, Hecate Energy’s new 42-megawatt photovoltaic (PV) solar facility is proposed to be built on several non-contiguous areas along State Route 23 and County Route 7 on seven parcels of private land totaling about 700 acres. Once constructed, the project will occupy approximately 215 acres, according to www.shepherdsrunsolar.com, Hecate’s Shepherd’s Run project website.

The project area is just east of the Taconic Hills School District and north of Copake Lake, in and around the Copake hamlet of Craryville. Much of the acreage is agricultural land. A school district campus and residential areas border the property.

The new proposed solar project is for a lesser megawatt facility (42) on a reduced amount of acreage (215). The original project was for a 60-megawatt facility on 267 acres; new access roads are expected to be reduced from 2.5 to about 2 miles, and project impacts to forest and agricultural lands, and visual impacts are anticipated to decrease.

Even though scaled down, the still industrial-sized project is not permitted under Copake Zoning Law, which Hecate has bypassed to seek site approval from the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES) under the state’s streamlined siting process for renewable energy projects, known as 94-c.

‘The developer has not yet presented to the community plans for their slimmed-down, but still very large, 42 MW project,’

–Copake Supervisor Richard Wolf

Hecate’s previous application for the larger facility was deemed incomplete three times before it was finally found to be complete in August 2023 and a draft permit was issued in October of that year.

Then in January 2024 it came to light that 60 acres of farmland that was supposed to be an integral piece of the Hecate project area was sold to Craryville Farms LLC, a buyer who wanted nothing to do with Hecate or its solar project. The crucial property was to host about 20% of the entire project’s solar panels, a laydown area, and the sole access road for adjacent facility parcels, among other components.

Copake’s Attorney handling the Shepherd’s Run matter, Benjamin Wisniewski wrote in his motion to dismiss the Shepherd’s Run application pending major revision, “Shepherd’s Run Solar is infeasible because the current layout is not viable. The loss of the property requires Hecate to redesign the project in a manner that uses new, previously unidentified parcels, or redistributes project components across parcels that have already been optimized for reducing impacts. In its own application, Hecate asserts that, the current project layout represents the smallest possible project footprint that avoids, minimizes, and mitigates, to the maximum extent practicable, impacts on sensitive resources and was developed through a multi-year iterative process… In Hecate’s own words, a redesign like the one now required, ‘would prohibit the construction of the project altogether.’”

The town broke the news of the land sale in its January 2 motion to dismiss the Shepherd’s Run application. Hecate Energy did not notify ORES or anyone else about losing the lease option on the land or the land sale.

The following month February 6, ORES Executive Director Houtan Moaveni granted the Town of Copake’s motion to dismiss and denied Hecate Energy’s application for the Shepherd’s Run Solar Project in Craryville. In doing so, Mr. Moaveni reversed Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Maureen F. Leary’s January 4 oral ruling to deny Copake’s motion to dismiss the siting permit application of Hecate Energy Columbia County 1 LLC.

Now after months of waiting for a new application that was expected in June 2024, the new revised application was filed December 23, 2024.

In his monthly solar project update January 9, Copake Supervisor Richard Wolf gave a complete rundown of the Shepherd’s Run saga since Hecate first approached the Town Board with a plan to build and operate a solar factory on the Rasweilers’ farm in 2017. Three years later in 2020, Hecate representatives returned and presented the town with its plan for a massive solar project it called Shepherd’s Run. The Town of Copake, the Columbia County Board of Supervisors and the City of Hudson have all gone on record in opposition to the project.

“We will have to see whether Hecate intends to have any more community meetings, with updated, accurate information. The developer has not yet presented to the community plans for their slimmed-down, but still very large, 42 MW project,” said Mr. Wolf.

Sara Traberman from Sensible Solar for Rural New York said in a statement about the new application, “Sensible Solar continues to support the Town of Copake’s opposition to Shepherd’s Run. Technically, Hecate filed a new application, but from our initial cursory review this is the same Shepherd’s Run project with the same old problems we saw the last time around. This project will be built on the Taghkanic Watershed, potentially jeopardizing Hudson’s water supply. It permanently removes hundreds of acres of prime farmland, violates at least 16 local laws, disrupts wildlife corridors, and will have an adverse impact on cultural resources in the area…This is not where we should be building a large solar facility, and we should not be sacrificing farmland and the environment in the name of renewable energy. Let’s remember, our elected officials, including State Senator Michelle Hinchey and Assemblymember Didi Barrett, shared our concerns in letters to ORES last year.

Hecate will try to tell us they downsized the project but we all know they lost a 60 acre parcel last year and that’s why the size was reduced from 267 to 217 acres. They re-filed the application containing more than 250 documents two days before the Christmas holiday, more than 7 months after they said they would file. We still don’t know why they delayed, and ORES was OK with it, despite the town’s objection.

We are deeply disappointed that this project is once again being considered for Copake. It is wrong for Copake, wrong for Hudson and wrong for Columbia County.”

Dan Haas from Friends of Columbia Solar said in a statement, “Friends of Columbia Solar welcomes the news that Shepherd’s Run has survived the challenges of the past year, and we look forward to working with Hecate and the town to make this project the best possible. The goals of the Working Group—an alliance that once included opponents as well as supporters—will continue to be the yardstick we use to measure progress. We are committed to getting the facts about Shepherd’s Run before the public and are confident that a clear understanding of the benefits to both the town and the planet will steadily build support.”

Hecate Energy Senior Director of Development Matt Levine told The Columbia Paper this week, “As we have consistently said, we are committed to working with and hearing from local voices to ensure the project proceeds in a way that supports the economy and preserves the rural character of this special community. Over the past year we heard valuable feedback that has been incorporated into the project. Now that we have submitted our new permit application, we look forward to continuing to engage in a long-term dialogue with the Copake community.”

The ORES permit review process includes several required opportunities to allow public comment on the project. Hecate is committed to meeting and exceeding those requirements, he said.

Mr. Levine also sent along a list of adjustments to the project made in response to feedback from the Copake community. These include:

*The addition of our new Agrivoltaic Integration Plan—which provides for sheep grazing on 73 acres of land

*Exclusion of battery storage from the project scope

*Extensive native tree and shrub planting to minimize sightlines for neighbors

*Support to extend/connect to local hiking trails or other passive recreational/educational opportunities

*Conducting local fire departments and first responder training

*Including pollinator species seed mix within the landscaping plan

*Implementing a Net Conservation Benefit Plan for grassland birds to preserve more than 25 acres of additional habitat

*Incorporating wildlife-friendly rural style fencing instead of chain-link fencing

*Avoiding direct impacts to all state regulated Class I wetlands and developing a project with no net loss of wetlands

*Committing to not source panels from suppliers who utilize forced labor or that contain the environmental contaminant PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances)

*Providing bidding opportunities to local suppliers and using local labor and purchasing when practicable.

ORES now has 60 days to determine if Hecate’s latest permit application is complete.

To contact Diane Valden email dvalden@columbiapaper.com

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