New York Power Authority announced this week it’s spending nearly $30 million on an energy storage facility in Chateaugay in Franklin County. The investment is part of the state’s effort to rely more on renewable energy.
According to NYPA, more than 80% of the electricity people use in northern New York comes from renewable sources, including hydropower, wind, and solar power.
“One thing we do is we produce a lot of energy in Chateaugay,” says Don Bilow, Town Supervisor of Chateaugay. “We’ve got two wind farms and some hydro plants.”
When Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his Green New Deal earlier this year, he set his sights on New York State as a whole being more like Chateaugay, more like the North County. Cuomo wants 70% of the state’s electricity to be renewable by 2030 and in June the state legislature passed a law requiring that.
But there’s a major hurdle to achieving that goal— most renewable sources don’t always produce a steady, reliable supply of electricity. That is why the NYPA announced this week its building an energy storage facility in Chateaugay.
“If the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, there would still be a way for get power to people’s homes,” says Ana Stachowiak.
Stachowiak is NYPA’s project manager for a new Chateaugay facility, which will store renewable energy in batteries. The facility will take up about an acre of land right next to the existing substation in town.
On that land will sit a bunch of conex containers, “and then within those containers would be the battery modules and battery racks,” explains Stachowiak.
The Chateaugay facility will be one of the first of its kind. Stachowiak says it will be a bit of a learning experience for NYPA and the state, which is why they’re starting small.
Once it’s built, the Chateaugay facility will be able to store 20 megawatts for an hour. Stachowiak says that’s just a fraction of what New Yorkers would need if the sun stopped shining or wind stopped blowing.
“It’s not going to replace a wind farm for a week’s worth of energy, but if there is a shortfall on the system, it would be there to pick up some of that load demand.”
In a press release, Assemblyman Jones from Chateaugay applauded NYPA’s investment, calling it good news for the North Country, even though it is not expected to create a lot of new jobs for the area.
Construction on the energy storage facility in Chateaugay is set to start in October. NYPA plans to to have it up and running by June of next year.
