EDITOR: On the surface, the Love Canal solar project makes a lot of sense

While it won’t change the legacy of one of the worst environmental disasters in the U.S., the idea that land once part of the infamous Love Canal could be suitable for a green energy project is compelling.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is exploring an approximately 16-acre area west of the currently fenced and closed Love Canal site for a build-ready solar plant. The site being considered for the proposed solar farm, approximately 16 acres in size, is owned by the city of Niagara Falls and is located south of Colvin Boulevard, north of the LaSalle Expressway, between 93rd and 95th streets. It was once the site of the Griffin development.

NYSERDA’s Build-Ready program aims to “advance large-scale renewable energy projects in challenging locations that are not being developed by the private sector.” The “difficult locations” that Build-Ready wants to develop include brownfield sites, landfills, existing or abandoned commercial and industrial sites, inactive electricity generating facilities, former mines and closed prisons and parking lots. Once Build-Ready identifies a site for redevelopment, it performs project design, engineering, permitting and utility interconnection review, and develops a benefits package for the host community.

“We are acting like a private developer putting land back on the tax rolls,” said Gillian D. Black, director of NYSERDA’s Build-Ready program. “We negotiate PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreements, social benefit agreements, we behave like a private developer who restores difficult areas for renewable energy production, but we do not compete with the private sector.”

Black said that once Build-Ready facilities are “secured,” the program’s goal is to bring private sector energy companies into the project for its eventual development. NYSERDA intends to auction the sites through what it calls an “open and competitive bidding process for construction and operation.”

This all sounds good to us, especially the news that the land will not be disturbed if solar panels are installed.

Build-Ready’s preliminary plan for the site calls for a ballasted photovoltaic system. The system typically uses concrete weights to anchor the frame, which holds the panels used to collect solar energy, to the ground.

Black said such systems are well designed for contaminated properties like the Love Canal because they don’t require fastening posts or post holes.

“There is no need to pierce the ground,” Black said, “and this is best for covered properties (like Love Canal) through which sinkholes may or may not be penetrated.”

Currently, the National Power Grid is verifying the plan and the possibility of connecting the local photovoltaic farm to the power grid.

We’ll see where this leads, but at first glance, a solar project seems like a logical choice for a place with such a dark history.