Hoosick Falls >> A partnership between the Village of Hoosick Falls and a solar company will bring clean energy to the Rensselaer County village.
The village announced a partnership with Monolith Solar to create a solar garden in an old landfill on Walnut Street. The new solar garden is comprised of ground-mounted solar panels on village-owned land at the closed landfill.
Completion of this project was years in the making. After three years of set up, various state and local officials, along with company representatives opened the facility Monday.
The new solar garden is a 592.92 kilowatt system and it will save the village over $40,000 during its first year. The solar garden has a total of 1,944 solar panels, which will provide up to 60 percent of the municipal electricity to the village. The village and Monolith Solar have entered a 20-year agreement.
Tim Carr of Monolith Solar said, “over this new 20- year plan at this location, the village of Hoosick Falls will save over $1.3 million with no cost to the village.”
Village mayor David Borge was on hand during the ribbon cutting ceremony Monday.
“This is land that couldn’t be used for anything but for the transfer station which is very attractive but now we have this land being put to its most productive use,” he said.
Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino helped to play a part during the process of getting this solar garden set up, officials said.
Jimino said she is proud of this project and she said, that she wanted to congratulate Mayor Borge and his board for this innovative reuse of this land and that it is a great spot to think to use an old landfill for this important new solar garden.
Jeff Cleary,a representative from Senator Kathleen Marchione’s office said, “Mayor David Borge is always working hard to find interesting ways to help out his village and that this is just tremendous use of land.”
Borge is currently in talks with the county to be able to more solar panels around Hoosick Falls over the next few years so that the village can one day run completely off completely solar energy. Borge said he looks forward to Hoosick Falls developing a reputation for being a green community.
Nicholas Buonanno can be reached at 518-290-8362.
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