“Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Jeffrey Ashe on Wednesday discussed a training course the board recently attended on energy storage facilities used to capture renewable energy as it is generated, suggesting a need for the city to plan for the eventual arrival of the units that he described as large batteries.
“What’s happening now with wind and solar is obviously the sun doesn’t shine all the time and the wind doesn’t blow all the time, but you want or need electricity 24 hours a day, so batteries can charge up and then batteries can produce that,” Ashe explained. “These are big industrial batteries that last for decades.”
Ashe noted that city code regulations were updated in 2016 in anticipation of the arrival of solar farms and multiple city projects are currently going through initial planning.
In the past year the city has pursued installing a community solar farm at the former landfill on East Fulton Street Extension located in the town of Johnstown with the Common Council awarding a contract for the project to Ameresco Inc. in August 2018. This project is currently under review by the Town of Johnstown Planning Board and a public hearing on plans for construction of a solar array on half of the landfill site is scheduled during the next meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Another project is currently being considered by Eden Renewables, a Troy based developer of community solar farms, that earlier this year held an open house on a proposed solar farm project on roughly 58 acres of the 150 acre former Pine Brook Golf Course located at 280 S. Main St. The project located in a residential zone would be subject to a use variance and has not yet been presented to the city Planning Board.
Although these solar projects do not currently include plans for battery storage components, Ashe said the use of these systems to capture the energy as it is generated for later use is seemingly becoming more common.“
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Onyon, Ashley. Leader Herald 11 August 2019.