Solar Farm Advances

A proposal for East Hampton Town’s first solar energy farm surged closer to reality on Sept. 2, after a site plan review before the town’s planning board produced little static.

SunEdison, a company based in Missouri, first went before the board in June for a preliminary review. At that time, the board seemed open to the proposal, but requested more specific details. Several neighbors of the proposed site, concerned about noise and screening, spoke at that meeting.

The site is a long, 11-acre rectangular piece of land, bordered to the east by Accabonac Road in Springs and beyond by preserved open space, which continues around the entire southern border. To the north and west are residential lots.

The town-owned site was once a brush dump. Before that, as Job Potter, a board member, said, “it was the town dump, back in the 1950s.” The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has deemed the site as safe to be developed as a solar farm.

SunEdison is asking to be allowed to install 3,528 solar panels on the site. They would stand up to 11 feet tall, with each generating 330 watts of electricity. PSEG would pay SunEdison for the power produced.

Eric Schantz, a senior planner for the town, told the board that the changes to the site plan it asked for in June had been made. The applicants have agreed to preserve a trail that runs through the property, and to use only vegetation recommended by the Planning Department, with no use of herbicides.

The revised application calls for black vinyl fencing around the perimeter, along with white pine and cedar trees for screening. As for noise, an inverter — the sole device on the property that actually makes noise while sunshine is converted to electricity — has been moved. It now is about 450 feet from the nearest house.

The facility would only operate when the sun is shining, said Jason Funk, a SunEdison development manager. There would be no noise at night.

The original proposal called for over 101,000 square feet of clearing. That has been reduced to about 88,000, about two acres. While the amount of land cleared would still require a variance from the zoning board, “the Planning Department commends the applicants for this amendment,” Mr. Schantz wrote.

A few issues remain to be resolved before the plan becomes reality.

Mr. Potter and the board’s chairman, Reed Jones, wondered whether the trees would still be an effective screen in winter, when they have lost their foliage. Also, the Planning Department wants an electrical meter to be moved 30 feet farther away from Accabonac Road; Mr. Funk indicated SunEdison would likely comply.

A PSEG meter-reader would visit the site monthly, as with any residence or business that consumes electricity, only in this case to determine how much electricity was generated.

The Springs Fire Department, in a letter from Chief David M. King to David Browne, the town’s chief fire marshal, asked if it was possible to add a second access road to the site, as well as a fire hydrant at the northwest corner, where Highland Boulevard hooks into Grant Avenue.

“Having a hydrant there would be extremely helpful if there was a brush fire,” Mr. Potter said.

Mr. Funk, however, pointed out that in the event of an electrical fire, firefighters would have to use foam rather than water. And putting in a hydrant would increase the project’s cost, he said, since it would require a water line to be run. As for a second access road, he said it meant more clearing and a bigger variance request.

“They were pretty soft in their request,” Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a board member, said of the hydrant. He encouraged the applicants to meet with both chiefs to determine what is really needed.

Despite the mitigating steps taken by SunEdison to reduce noise to what Mr. Funk said would be “the level of a whisper,” one or two board members expressed continuing concern. Even a whisper is more noise than the neighbors currently hear, and the noise issue is likely to be brought up again when the proposal gets its public hearing, Kathleen Cunningham warned. The hearing will be scheduled after the board deems the application complete, which will require another site plan session, likely a couple of months from now.

As the session concluded, Mr. Calder-Piedmonte complimented SunEdison for working with the board, particularly over neighbors’ concerns. Diana Weir encouraged Mr. Funk to get together with both the Fire Department and the neighbors, which he said he would do. She called such meetings a “mutual education,” as the town moves closer to approving its first solar farm.