“Two entities — the town of Conquest and a group of concerned residents — will be able to tap into funds posted by the developer of one of the largest proposed solar farms in New York state.
The state Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment ruled last week on requests for intervenor funds made by the Cayuga County town and a newly formed advocacy group called the Rural Preservation and Net Conservation Benefit Coalition. Both are seeking help paying for their own legal and environmental experts to review a proposed 200-megawatt solar power facility in Conquest called the Garnet Energy Center.
Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources, a sister company of Florida Power & Light Co., is looking to install solar panels and storage and transmission equipment on 1,200 to 1,400 acres of property that it would lease from private landowners in Conquest. The company also plans to release property for buffer areas to minimize the impact on neighboring properties, bringing the total project footprint up to about 1,900 acres.
When it filed its 239-page preliminary scoping statement with the state siting board on Sept. 17, NextEra also paid a required fee of $70,000 that can be tapped by affected municipalities and local third parties to assist with their own reviews of the project.”
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Boyer, Jeremy. Auburn Pub 29 November 2020.