Rick Energy outlines Ancram solar project; board continues review

Rick Energy representatives presented an update on the Millerhurst Ancram solar project, tracing the application's timeline from a pre-application meeting in June 2024 to the county planning board referral in March 2025. "As of the end of this month, the application will have been in front of the board for a full year," project developer Sierra Hopkins told the board, and she said revisions reduced the limits of disturbance from 9.9 acres to 9.4 acres while actual panel acreage is "only about 6 acres."

Hopkins summarized submitted materials including agricultural data, site plans, wetland and threatened-species determinations, the equipment specification sheet and a fire chief letter dated Oct. 31 that raised no opposition if state fire-code requirements are met. The applicant said underground wiring to the collection system is shown on plans and that some interconnection equipment (reclosers, meters) will be aboveground per utility standards. The planning board noted it has not engaged two additional consultants (a visual impact analyst and a landscape architect) because the town has not yet received the escrow check funding those contracts.

The board spent much of the evening taking public comment and technical questions about screening, interconnection design and decommissioning costs. Chair (S2) set the next hearing date for Dec. 4, 2025, and the board voted to continue the public hearing to that date to allow consultant review and additional filings.