CornerStone Power Development, a Chicago-based developer, is planning to build the farm in the town of Coxsackie. The project should cost $60 million and would be New York's first large-scale solar installation, the Albany Times-Union reports Tuesday. Another large solar project is in development on Long Island, but the Coxsackie solar farm is expected to be finished first.
The Coxsackie project shows that, even in upstate New York - which is famous for cloudy skies and dreary weather - solar power can work. "We feel that solar is starting to make sense," Daniel Somers, an executive with CornerStone, said to the Times-Union.
CornerStone plans to build its solar development on family farmland - so it should not be too difficult to secure the acreage that will be required. The permitting process still needs to be completed, though - and that could prove to be a time-consuming prospect.
Nevertheless, CornerStone expects its solar farm to be producing energy by 2012. If it proves to be a success, more large-scale solar installations could crop up around the Northeast.
