The 3.5 MW Clemons Road project consists of 6,427 solar panels that will produce enough electricity to offset 2,284 tons of CO2 annually and power the equivalent of 409 average homes per year.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held recently for the Clemons Road community solar project in the Village of Minoa, New York.
Renewable Properties, a developer and investor in small-scale utility and community solar projects, completed the project. In partnership with the Village and Ampion, Renewable Properties’ subscriber manager, nearly 100 Minoa residents subscribed to the program, accounting for 20% of the community solar project’s subscribers. In addition to their bill savings, the Minoa residents’ portion of the array is estimated to generate 878,702 kWh of solar power per year.
Community solar benefits those who don’t own their own home or have a suitable roof orientation for solar. It also allows ratepayers who otherwise could not afford the upfront costs of solar to save money on electric bills while using clean energy. Ampion subscribes the ratepayers to a portion of the Clemons Road solar farm’s energy production and receive credits on their utility bills, reducing their overall energy costs.
The mayor of Minoa, William F. Brazill was enthusiastic about the project from the start and offered Minoa residents the opportunity to sign up to be subscribers before subscriptions were open to anyone else.
“As mayor, my goals include saving money for our community and making Minoa more sustainable,” said Brazill. “This project achieves both goals by helping community members save on power bills while increasing the supply of local renewable energy. The project’s economic and environmental benefits will strengthen our community. This solar project is located in Minoa and is for Minoa.”
The 3.5 MW Clemons Road project consists of 6,427 solar panels that will produce enough electricity to offset 2,284 tons of CO2 annually and power the equivalent of 409 average homes per year.
Renewable Properties is active in 15 states and has over 1.2 GW of solar, energy storage and EV infrastructure under development with over 177 MW under construction or in operation. The Minoa installation is Renewable Properties’ seventh operational community solar project in upstate New York.
“Renewable Properties’ mission is to drive energy forward for local communities,” said Aaron Halimi, President of Renewable Properties. “With 20% of the array generating solar power for Minoa, our Clemons Road Solar project exemplifies how we accomplish that goal, providing solar in Minoa for nearly 100 Minoa residents. We’re also proud to be contributing other community benefits, such as local operations and maintenance jobs and tax revenue for the Village of Minoa and Onondaga County.”
Ampion, a New England-based company that manages subscriptions and revenue for community solar projects, helped acquire the project’s subscribers and will manage them for Renewable Properties throughout the lifecycle of the project.
“We’re pleased that our subscriber campaign attracted nearly 100 Minoa residents, allowing them to benefit directly from a solar project in their municipality and receive clean energy savings,” said Nate Owen, Ampion CEO & founder. “We look forward to providing utility cost savings to subscribers and clean energy to the local area.”
United Renewable Energy (URE) served as the solar projects’ engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm. NYSERDA incentives through the NY-Sun Commercial & Industrial Megawatt Block Program and Community Adder facilitated the project.
