Greenskies to Build Solar Array in Erie County, New York

Press Release | Alden, NY
March 22, 2016

Fresh on the heels of signing a contract to build a 2.7 megawatt municipal solar project in Lewis County in north central New York state, Greenskies Renewable Energy has been contracted to build a 2.7 megawatt solar array in Erie County, in the western end of the state.

The ground-mounted system will be built on a vacant tract of land in Alden, owned by Erie County. The site is adjacent to the Alden Correctional Facility. The solar array will consist of 8,500 solar photovoltaic panels.

“The clean energy generated by the system will be used to offset electricity usage at several county-owned buildings and facilities, considerably reducing the county’s utility costs,” said Ittay Arad, vice president of business development at Greenskies. The electricity produced at the Alden site will be distributed virtually to the county buildings through a program called remote net-metering.

Greenskies and Erie County have entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement under which Greenskies will design, engineer, construct and maintain the new solar array, at no cost to the county. The company will then sell the power produced at the site back to the county at a fixed and significantly discounted rate.

“The solar power purchase agreement is the kind of project the council supports and recommends to county leadership,” said Anne Bergantz, chairman of the Erie County Environmental Management Council. “We believe that renewable energy development is a strategic planning and resource priority that has multiple benefits for our region that include cost saving, improved air quality and public health, and climate change mitigation.”

Construction on the project is expected to begin in the summer and be completed in fourth quarter, weather permitting.

Based in Middletown, Conn., Greenskies is an eight-year-old company that designs, builds and maintains solar photovoltaic systems for commercial and industrial clients, municipalities and government agencies, educational institutions and utilities throughout the United States. Solar installations designed and built by Greenskies have now produced more than 85 million kilowatt hours of clean electric power.