COHOES, N.Y. — City and state elected officials celebrated Earth Day with a groundbreaking for the city’s innovative Floating Solar Array project.
The project’s goal is to completely remove the city’s current municipal electricity costs. It is the first-ever municipally owned and operated floating solar project in the nation. It will be installed on top of the city’s water reservoir.
The project is a pilot program that will be used as a model for municipalities across the country if all goes as planned.
Floating solar panels will be placed on the surface of the reservoir. The energy generated and stored, approximately 3.2MW, is projected to fully cover the city’s $500,000 municipal electric bill, with extra energy left over that can be sold back into the grid. Installation of the Floating Solar Array is expected to be completed this fall, and the Array fully operational next spring.
“Cohoes is a small city, we have precious little green space,” Cohoes Mayor Bill Keeler remarked at the groundbreaking ceremony. “But what we do have is a beautiful ten-acre reservoir that we can use for green energy. What better way to honor Earth Day than by groundbreaking on an innovative solar technology.”
The Floating Solar Array Project is part of the city’s Cleaner Greener Cohoes initiative, which began four years ago and has included projects such as replacing all of the city’s light bulbs with LEDs. The initiative has already saved city taxpayers thousands of dollars and taken steps towards reducing the city’s carbon footprint.
Joining the mayor and the many state and city officials celebrating the groundbreaking were the student leadership teams from the city’s three elementary schools. The third, fourth, and fifth-grade students who were in attendance watched and listened as the ceremony’s speakers praised the Floating Solar Array project.
“He thinks outside the ordinary,” U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko said of fellow Democrat Keeler, praising his inspiration and leadership. “This project is a very welcome one. We need to ‘green up’ our energy thinking.”
“New York is all-in on solar and all-in on innovation,” said Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). “We’re investing billions in solar markets across the state. It’s a vision we’re proud to support.”
Funding for the Floating Solar Array is coming from a variety of sources including federal and state grants, among them a $3 million Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant secured by Tonko. NYSERDA is anticipating funding close to $1 million from its NYSun Incentives program, and National Grid has funded $750,000 through its Renewable Energy Economic Development Grant – the maximum possible amount that can be given.
“Supporting projects like this is at the core of National Grid’s policies for clean energy,” said Brian Sano, director of Customer and Community Engagement at National Grid. “It’s these kinds of projects that are needed. We need that outside-of-the-box thinking that we’re going to need to meet our goals for clean energy in the state.”
“We need climate-smart communities like Cohoes to lead the way,” said State Department of Environmental Conservation Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar.
Assemblyman John McDonald, a former Democratic Cohoes mayor himself who has known Keeler for, as he said, “a really long time,” spoke to Keeler directly about his accomplishments in office towards the Cleaner Greener Cohoes initiative.
“Bill, your leadership has been phenomenal in this city,” McDonald said to Keeler. “You’ve been setting the example for other communities.”
Keeler was very happy to see the Floating Solar Array project kicking off with the groundbreaking, and very proud to see the city’s elementary school students showing interest.
“Our floating solar project provides a more sustainable world for our students,” Keeler remarked. “There’s future mayors and Congress (representatives) in that group.”
Construction of the solar panel array will include an observation platform on the grounds of the city’s water filtration plant next door. Students and others will be able to use the platform for a variety of purposes, including study and research of the solar panels and planning for other municipalities to take on similar projects.
“It feels pretty good,” Keeler commented when asked about being the first municipally owned and operated Floating Solar Array project in the country. “It’s important to get this replicated. We can produce so much clean energy. It’s going to result in big savings for our taxpayers, and it’s good for the environment.”
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