Genie Solar proposes development on Lansingville Road

Genie Solar Energy, a New Jersey-based energy company, is looking to build Lansing Community Solar, a new solar energy project planned for a parcel on Lansingville Road.

The plan for the 5-megawatt alternating current ground-mounted community solar farm was unveiled at April’s Town of Lansing Planning Board meeting. The solar farm is pitched by Genie officials as a generation facility that produces clean, renewable electricity that would add to the local electric grid and result in savings for residents.

Officials also claim that the project will contribute to certain goals of the Tompkins County Energy Strategy and help move state environmental goals forward.

The project will encompass 18 acres of the total 107 acres at the Lansingville Road parcel, which is owned by Turek Farms and will be located on the west side of the road between Jerry Smith Road and Dublin Road, according to documents submitted to the planning board. It will be secured by an 8-foot-tall agricultural-style perimeter fence with a locking gate. The solar farm will be accessed via a proposed gravel access road on Lansingville Road that would be constructed at the location of an existing farm road in the northeast corner of the parcel. 

Genie officials and contracted engineers claim that the solar energy facility follows all design standards and permitting requirements outlined in the town’s solar law passed in 2020, including a decommissioning plan. The solar panels will be ground-mounted on a single-axis tracking system, which will be driven or screwed into the ground, limiting site disturbance. 

Electrical lines within the site will be underground, except for at the utility interconnection poles near the front portion of the site, as required by New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG).

The proposed plan also calls for a dense evergreen patch to blend the solar farm’s components with the existing landscape. To further minimize visual impact, the plan notes, the electrical equipment is set back into the interior of the site and situated behind panels, limiting its visibility. 

No tree clearing is proposed in conjunction with the Lansing Community Solar project, and no impacts to aquatic resources at the site will occur.

“Genie has been in the wholesale and retail energy space for 25 years, buying and selling electricity and natural gas in the wholesale market,” said Nathan Knapke, Genie’s director of Community Solar. “In the last five to 10 years, we really got into constructing, owning and operating our own assets to sell for our pre-existing customers through the state. We are one of the largest energy supplying companies in the nation, and we feel these types of solar projects fit really well in our portfolio.” 

Knapke said Turek Farms representatives offered to lease the land, noting that the company has a good relationship with the landowners.

Genie contracted C.T. Male Associates of Syracuse, an engineering consulting firm, to help out with regulatory and environmental compliance.

The project could start construction up to a year after it is approved by the Town of Lansing and the planning board. 

“There are material timelines to order equipment that can run into the range of a year long,” Knapke said.

Chris Koenig, an engineer with C.T. Male overseeing the project. provided the board with a construction timeline.

“Construction is approximately six to eight months,” he said. 

Planning Board Member Larry Sharpsteen asked what the lifespan of the project would be.

“What is your useful life on this? Thirty years?” he asked. Knapke noted that a lifespan of 30 years is their target but could extend beyond that.

The project, Koenig said, is ultimately well situated and is already far along in the regulatory phase.

“This is a good location for solar power generation, and unlike a lot of sites, it is not visually intrusive,” Koenig added. “It is set back from the road, and we are doing all we can to mitigate intrusion on our neighbors.”

If approved, the project would be Genie Solar’s second in the region. The company broke ground on a similar community solar generation facility in the village of Perry in Wyoming County earlier this year.

The board will revisit the application for the Lansing Community Solar project at their May 22 meeting. There will also be a public hearing on that date.

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on Twitter @ezvelazquez.

In brief:

The Lansing Events Committee will host its first chicken barbecue of the year, serving Hatfield chicken on June 10. The committee is seeking donations and can pick up or arrange for a meet-up regarding the items:

• Poultry seasoning: one big container
• Salt: 12 containers 
• Charcoal lighter fluid: three cans 
• Kingsford charcoal: bags of 20-24 lbs.
• Butter: 16 lbs.
• Two gallons of apple cider vinegar
• 12 large aluminum pans
• Two rolls of paper towels 
• A bottle of spray cleaner
• Two or three sponges
• 10 cans of Bush’s beans 
• Vegetable oil: three gallons

Residents interested in donating can reach the committee on Facebook.