After several years of planning, project construction and some additional necessary upgrades to National Grid’s distribution system, the County of Oswego energized their largest solar project June 29.
The project, which began in 2014, is part of the NY-SUN program administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The 2 MW system, covers about 10 acres next to the Bristol Hill Landfill site on NY Route 3. It came at no cost to the County and is predicted to save nearly $5 million over the next 20 years.
County officials said that in addition to the financial benefits generated by this initiative, the energy produced will have significant environmental impacts as well.
When compared to the same amount of electricity produced over 20 years using fossil fuels as the energy source, this solar project will help avoid the production of over 39,000 tons of CO2, 27 tons of NOx, 6.6 tons of SO2 and 7.9 tons of particulates; this is roughly the equivalent of driving 1,693,174 cars 50 miles a day for one year.
The Volney project will be the eighth solar project initiated by Oswego County. The other seven each generate 50kW or less. In total, these renewable energy projects have the capacity to generate more than one-third of the electricity used on an annual basis by Oswego County government facilities.