[Note: Croton100 supported the 1.8 MWdc Community Solar Farm at the Hudson National Golf Course. After much opposition from residents, the application was withdrawn by the developers in December 2022.]
Croton100 Supports the Proposed 1.8 MWdc Community Solar Farm by the Hudson National Golf Course. Here’s why:
- Croton100’s Mission is to educate and advocate for rapid carbon reduction in our community to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040 in zip code 10520.
- Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere at a perilous rate, creating Code Red for Humanity. The solutions to this existential threat must be commensurate with the crisis. Global scientists have stressed that these circumstances “require rapid, far-reaching unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.”
- New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requires state-wide 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040, 70% renewable energy by 2030 and 6,000 MW of solar by 2025 (just three years from now!). This means we must immediately begin large scale solar installations, including in Croton.
- The scale of the proposed solar installation at the HNGC is consistent with solar development needs and is optimized to reduce the disturbance of slopes on the site.
- The carbon benefits of solar, compared to trees is about 20:1 or higher. The carbon off-set of the proposed solar installation is equal to a reduction of 2.5 million pounds of carbon emissions annually, which equates to carbon sequestration capacity of about 13,000 hardwood trees.
- Because of the urgent need for solar installations, it is necessary to give greater weight to the carbon reduction benefits of solar energy, when compared to the carbon sequestration benefits of the proposed removal of approximately 580 trees in this project. Further, the developer proposes replanting a large number of native tree in other locations.
- Croton100 accepts, with a heavy heart, that the environmental impacts of the removal of trees, while odious, are not sufficiently compelling to reject this solar project on privately owned land.
- Croton100 supports other solar projects, including on rooftops and parking lots, such as the proposed solar canopy project at the Croton Train Station Parking Lot. The opportunities for such large-scale community solar projects in Croton are quite limited.
- The Village alone has about 3,200 residential and small commercial accounts that collectively use about 18,000 megawatt-hours per year. To serve 100% of that load solely with solar energy, we will need to build about 16 megawatts of solar capacity. Between the proposed solar farms at the golf course and train station parking lot, we will be adding 5.8 megawatts of solar, almost one third of that capacity. We need much more if we add in all the large commercial electricity users and as we transition our heating and transportation off of fossil fuels and onto renewable electricity systems.
- You can read our more detailed analysis in our November 9, 2021 Letter to Mayor Pugh and the Croton Village Board of Trustees here.
- Village of Croton-on-Hudson documents on this solar project.
Croton100 Submits Letter in Favor of Croton Golf Course Solar Farm
Croton100 has submitted a letter in support of the proposed 1.8 MWdc community solar array that would cover 7.3 acres on the Hudson National Golf Course property. Croton100’s analysis found that the carbon benefits of the solar generation outweigh by 20:1 the loss of carbon absorption by trees that would be removed. Other adverse environmental impacts would be either minimal or mitigable (November 2021).