Renewable Properties has completed construction on a 3.5 MW solar project that will serve a small village in upstate New York. The Clemons Road community solar project in Minoa, New York, consists of 6,427 solar panels and is the company’s seventh operational community solar project in the region.
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 will generate 878,702 kWh of solar power per year.
“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.”
To celebrate the project’s completion, Renewable Properties hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony and educational project tour on Nov. 19 at the project site. William F. Brazil, Mayor of the Village of Minoa, and other area dignitaries joined executives from Renewable Properties, Ampion, and United Renewable Energy (URE), the project’s construction partner, for the ribbon cutting event.
Community solar allows multiple participants, such as households or businesses, to share the benefits of a single solar energy project without installing panels on their own property. Participants subscribe to a portion of the solar farm’s energy production and receive credits on their utility bills, reducing their overall energy costs.
Brazill encouraged the solar project to be built in Minoa and urged residents to subscribe, providing the community information on the project as well as incentives to sign up. The mayor also ensured that Minoa residents were offered the first opportunity to subscribe to the project before it was opened up to those outside the town.
“As mayor, my goals include saving money for our community and making Minoa more sustainable,” Brazill said. “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.”
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 proud to build on our partnership with Renewable Properties by connecting utility customers to clean energy and savings from the Clemons Road Solar project,” said Nate Owen, Ampion CEO and founder. “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. 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. Construction began on June 15, 2023, and was completed on July 17, 2024. William Silva, URE’s founder and CEO, also attended the ribbon cutting and participated in an educational tour of the facility.
“I am especially proud of this project,” said Silva. “Like every Renewable Properties project, we built it the with the support of local workers and businesses. As a native upstate New Yorker, I love seeing the benefits of highly cost-effective community solar deployed locally to the benefit of Central New Yorkers.”
NYSERDA incentives through the NY-Sun Commercial & Industrial Megawatt Block Program and Community Adder facilitated the project.
Tags: Community Solar, Renewable Properties
