KNOX —  A community volunteer group that has been working since 2008 to promote renewable energy in the Hilltowns  announced this week an agreement with Monolith Solar that will enable electricity consumers to use solar-produced electricity without having to install any solar panels.

Russ Pokorny, a founder of Helderberg Community Energy,  the volunteer group, says “the race is on to be the first” in New York State to offer solar community net metering.

He says the decision last year by the state Public  Service Commission to allow community net metering made possible this new way to “go solar.” At the same time, the federal government extended tax credits for solar energy until 2020.

Also known as shared renewable energy,  community net metering permits any users — including residences (owned or rented), businesses, farms and municipalities — to share power produced by a  large renewable energy source, in this case a two-megawatt solar photovoltaic array to be constructed by Monolith at a location west of the Capital District.

Pokorny  says any National Grid customers in Load Zone F, which extends from southern Albany County north to Ticonderoga and from Gloversville east to Troy, will be eligible to participate,  once the array is up and running later this year. Load Zone F does not include the towns of Westerlo and Rensselaerville which are served by Central Hudson Gas and Electric.

According to Pokorny, HCE played a key role in making the concept a reality.

Assisted by NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority,  and working with Solarize Albany, HCE developed a request for proposals to solar-energy companies and then helped to evaluate  responses submitted through the NY-Sun Solar Electric Program.

The winner, Monolith, is  based in Rensselaer. The company owns and operates nine solar farms across upstate New York, with plans to build more, but the new one will be the first to be constructed not for a single user but for multiple users, Pokorny says.

HCE says Monolith was chosen for its “capability and experience in building  solar electric- generating facilities.” It was also chosen, he says, because “customers will be getting a very good deal from Monolith,” better than any offered by other companies who submitted proposals.

Pokorny thinks Monolith has the edge over two or three other companies elsewhere in the state “in the race to be first.” He predicts Monolith will be remotely solar-powering customers  by mid- to late-September.

Plans change

The agreement with Monolith represents a change in plans by HCE.  

When the group first formed, its member saw wind power as  the best source of renewable energy for Hilltown highlands. But Pokorny says that the economics of wind power proved to be “not feasible.”

Pokorny is the town assessor and his wife Amy is the deputy town supervisor. The couple powers their own home with renewable energy.

For several years now  they and their fellow energy activist Warren Willsey have been working toward the goal of planting a solar farm on Knox soil.  A co-op of users would have been formed to use the energy the farm supplied.

But this plan proved difficult to realize.

Acquisition of land close to a three-phase power line — a requirement for solar farms — has been one obstacle. Another was the the permitting process. The town of Knox is still debating zoning regulations for solar power. A third challenge they faced was interconnection to the grid.

In contrast, HCE says, community net metering and the Monolith agreement provide a “fast and efficient” way to bring solar power to Knox, as well as to neighboring towns in southern Albany county.

Pokorny predicts that community solar will be quick to grow across the state  and will  become an important part of the state’s energy mix.

Benefits

HCE says remote community solar power has many benefits for electricity consumers.

Among them, HCE says, is that it makes solar power a real option for the first time for homes and buildings for which roof-top installations are not possible. They include apartments, homes with roofs on which solar powers cannot be installed, and historic homes their owners  don’t wish to alter or which cannot be altered because of local preservation ordinances.

No structural modification or meter change is required.

“It will be so easy to sign up and have it up and running,’ Amy Pokorny says. “No holes need to be made in the roof,” she points out, “but customers get bragging rights that they are now saving by using renewable energy.”

HCE says shared-solar is also an affordable  way  for persons with low-to-moderate incomes to participate in the move to renewable energy, while saving on their electricity bill.

Lindsey McEntire, a spokeswoman for Monolith, said the company has been working with HCE for four or five months and is “very excited” about the impending rollout. She confirmed that the project is the first community net metering project for the company, though it has had experience with shared  sites for commercial users.

She says the project’s two-megawatt  projected capacity will probably be reached over a two-year period, as demand grows and other solar-farm sites are added to the initial one.

The new energy source will be marketed by Monolith as a way for  customers to reduce their  energy costs, according to HCE.  

Monolith will sell shared solar power with the guarantee of a 20 percent reduction in monthly electrical bills, HCE says. For example, a household paying on average $100 monthly for delivered electricity will pay $80 instead.

Customers will continue to receive a bill from National Grid for a monthly customer fee that is currently around $17. They will  also receive a monthly bill for electricity usage from Monolith.  This bill will be for the same amount each month:  20 percent less than the user’s average monthly National Grid charge for consumption, prior to signing up for shared solar power.

HCE says the group will deliver around 120 customers to Monolith, including the villages of Altamont and Voorheesville,  as initial “sharers” of the community array.

These are customers that HCE had already lined-up through its own education efforts on behalf of its planned but now canceled solar farm.

Beyond that, the organization will continue to recruit new customers for the array, through advertising and  outreach to southern Albany County residents, businesses,  and communities, until the array is totally subscribed.

Individuals or entities, HCE says, will also have the option of making a Power Purchase Agreement by which they become owners of panels in the array. Zero-interest loans and direct federal tax credits are available for such purchases.

Beyond monthly savings, HCE asserts, such “owner” customers may also qualify for an end-of-year payment.  Surplus  electricity produced by the array — and returned to the grid — could make this possible.

Pokorny estimates that owner-customers might realize as much as a 40 percent saving in their cost of electricity.

He says the the risk assumed in a Power Purchase Agreement with Monolith is “not great compared to other such offerings” and  “you can back out pretty easily.” No down payment is required, he says.

HCE, he says, has no financial stake in the initiative nor will it receive any monetary benefit from it.

Editor’s note: The Altamont Enterprise as a business and two of its three publishers, who own a home together, signed up last year as being interested in the Helderberg Community Energy solar project.