Planners back 10 megawatt solar project in Gaines-Carlton

ALBION – The Orleans County Planning Board voted in support of a proposed 10 megawatt solar project in Gaines and Carlton, near the Gaines Valley Aviation Airport on Gaines-Waterport Road.

Saturn Power in Ontario, Canada is the developer and is operating in New York as Pescara Solar 1 LLC and Pescara Solar 2 LLC, out of Seattle, Wash. The solar panels will go on land owned by Gerald Pescara.

The project is actually split into two separate 5 MW systems. The solar projects are on adjoining properties at 2283 Gaines-Waterport Rd. and 2267 Gaines-Waterport Road. The County Planning Board on Thursday recommended Gaines and Carlton each approve the site plans and issue permits for the solar projects.

The solar panels will be on a tracking system so the panels can move and follow the sun. There won’t be a battery storage system.

The project in Gaines calls for 15,400 solar panels on 577 freestanding tracking solar modules. The project will utilize 33 acres out of 103-acre parcel. The company will plant 101 trees and bushes as part of a landscaping screening plan, ranging in size of 20 to 75 feet at maturity.

The project in Carlton will have 15,300 solar panels on 570 freestanding tracking solar modules. It will use 28 acres of a 44-acre parcel. The plans calls for 91 trees and bushes ranging in size from 10 to 75 feet.

Each project will have its own access road, electrical lines, new electrical equipment and concrete pads for transformers.