Hecate Energy has filed an application with the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) to construct a 500-megawatt solar farm in the Western New York towns of Elba and Oakfield.
If approved and constructed, the Cider Solar Farm would be the largest solar project ever built in New York state.
This represents the first new application to be submitted under the state’s new permitting process for large-scale renewable projects. The $500 million-plus private infrastructure investment is expected to supply more than 920,000 megawatts-hours of renewable electricity per year, enough to power over 120,000 average New York households.
“This project provides a concrete example of the scale and speed with which we must move if we are to meet critical renewable energy goals,” said Harrison Luna, project lead at Hecate. “Cider Solar will do more than create clean renewable energy to drive the new economy; it will also deliver significant new revenue t