A sign for the Harrietstown Business Park is seen here Tuesday. (Enterprise photo — Sydney Emerson)

LAKE CLEAR — A solar farm company is interested in investigating the possibility of setting up a solar array at the Harrietstown Business Park near the town-owned airport in Lake Clear. The town council is seeking public comment on the proposed plan at its meeting on Feb. 15.

There’s a long process to see if this sort of project is even feasible, but in the meantime, Connecticut-based Lodestar Energy is proposing to lease the land for a few years while studies are done to determine whether or not it’s possible there, with the option of installing an array there if the feasibility is confirmed.

Harrietstown Supervisor Jordanna Mallach announced the idea at a board meeting last month. Councilmembers were excited by the potential. They’ve been trying to attract businesses to the business park for years, and have open space there. Lodestar is not asking to build a solar array yet, but asking for a year-to-year lease to start investigating the project.

Mallach said, array or no array, the town would still get paid. If the plan is feasible, the town business park might get a solar array. If not, she said, “no harm, no foul.”

Lodestar Development Associate Elias Abbasi said there 0are many “go” or “no-go” moments during the preliminary phase. He said there is a high failure rate in the beginning as issues come up and possibilities are pared down.

“So much so that it’s kind of a ‘don’t get your hopes up’ kind of thing,” he said.

But he did say Harrietstown’s property passed the “desktop review” which is sort of “unique” in his experience. This desktop review is to see if the solar farm could connect with the local electric grid, sussing out the hosting capacity of the infrastructure — feeder lines and proximity to a substation with the capacity to handle the extra load. Abbasi said these needs were met.

Abbasi said working with the town is a “dream landowner situation” and that they’ve been communicative and friendly through the process.

Mallach said they still have lots of questions and they do not want to go any further until there’s more information figured out.

She said Lodestar wants to see community support for the project. Councilman Jeremy Evans said this would also be a change in the vision for the business park and he is curious what the community thinks about this.

Lodestar representatives will be at the Feb. 15 meeting, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the basement of the Harrietstown Town Hall. To attend over Zoom, go to tinyurl.com/mr489746 or use the meeting ID 849 5204 3140 and passcode 313222.

“Ever since I got on the board we’ve got this business park that we’ve been trying to do stuff with,” Mallach said. “We haven’t had a lot of luck finding an industry that was suitable.”

Part of that, she said, is because the work to attract tenants to the park is shared across town staff and officials along with their other duties. The town does not have a dedicated community development director for this work, Mallach said.

In the past few years she’s been contacting solar companies through the Adirondack North Country Association’s clean energy conferences and pitching the idea. She said for most companies, they’ve told her this area is too small for what they do and they felt it was not profitable. But she said Lodestar representatives have told her they believe it would be profitable for their business model. The company is expanding into New York with completed projects in western New York and one in the works in Ticonderoga.

Harrietstown already has one solar array — the 10-acre Saranac Lake Community Solar farm run by RER Energy Group on state Route 86 past Lake Colby, which opened three years ago. At the time, it was the first community solar project of its size in the Adirondacks. The energy harvested there is put into the electric grid, but residential and commercial customers can subscribe monthly to the solar service and use the electricity credits generated by the farm as part of their National Grid power bill for a 10% savings with no subscription fee. Adirondack Medical Center, less than a mile down the road from the farm, receives a large portion of the energy produced there.

This potential solar array at the Harrietstown business park would cover 25 acres in total — all of the 20-acre Phase 1 of the business park, and five acres of Phase 2. This would block access to portions of Phase 2, but Lodestar is proposing two arrays with a new road allowing others access to the rest of the lots.

Mallach said the town attorney is reviewing the plan now.

There is a potential this would be a community solar project and would need anchor clients to buy into it.

“Can this be leveraged for the airport?” Evans asked, adding that it could lower the airport’s carbon footprint, as well as the nearby Birch Park Community housing development.

“I don’t really know a lot about solar,” Councilman Johnny Williams said. “I know it’s one of the few viable alternatives to fossil fuels, which is exciting.”

He wants to know more about the potential environmental impacts of installing a solar array there, but was overall interested in the proposal, saying he didn’t think there could be a better use for that land.

Mallach said a solar array would not need sewer or water hookups and there aren’t any at the site. She also said solar installations does not disturb soil, which is good because of potential PFAS contamination there from the neighboring Adirondack Regional Airport.

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Bionique

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One of the other questions about the potential project is how it would impact neighbors. There aren’t many in the remote area, but the town’s main tenant of the business park, Bionique Testing Laboratories, is nearby. The lab recently got approval from the Adirondack Park Agency for a large expansion on their plot.

Councilwoman Tracey Schrader said the lab values its air quality, and that a solar project would likely not impact that much.

Bionique Business Manager Doug Crowell, who attends town board meetings, said the lab has a “really high electric bill,” and that he thinks a solar farm would be a good neighbor. But he added that to remain viable in future years, Bionique needs to be able to expand further and he was concerned about getting “landlocked.” The lab has 5 acres of property at the park right now, and is going to fill that up with its expansion.

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Airport

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Williams asked if solar panels would cause any problems for planes taking off from Adirondack Regional Airport and flying over the site. Adirondack Regional Airport Manager Corey Hurwitch said there would have to be an Federal Aviation Administration study on the project, which Mallach said Lodestar would pay for.

Hurwitch said the site is close to the approach of Runway 27, but that runway is going away sometime in the future.

Mallach said there’s an anti-reflective coat required for solar panels near an airport to reduce glare, and that Lodestar engineers are already aware of it.

“It sounds win, win, win, win,” Hurwitch said.

Mallach wondered if Lodestar engineers understood what it takes to build in the Adirondack Park. The project manager has worked for the Open Space Institute and understands the APA, she said.

Mallach was impressed with the amount of research Lodestar has done — looking into associated costs, recognizing the need for a coat near the airport and an understanding of working with the APA. She was surprised that they’ve already done their homework on the project and already know of and are accounting for many of the potential hang-ups.