CleanCapital is eager to look at more brownfield properties in New York after being selected byNYSERDAto develop the state’s first Build-Ready site solar project, company officials told NPM, praising a program that could be a “role model” for other states to replicate.

CleanCapital Chief Development Officer Paul Curran told NPM in a recent interview that his company thinks renewable energy development is one of the most appropriate uses of revitalizing brownfield properties. Last week, NYSERDA announced that CleanCapital was picked in its first Build-Ready site auction for a 12 MW project on an underutilized portion of the Benson Mines property, a former iron ore tailings pile in St. Lawrence County. The project is estimated to generate enough energy to power up to 3,000 homes annually, according to information from the state.

CleanCapital was selected through a competitive solicitation process administered by NYSERDA, who then sold and transferred the project to CleanCapital to finance, construct, own and operate the project. CleanCapital has entered into a 20-year Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) agreement to sell Tier 1 RECs generated by the project to NYSERDA.

Under the Build-Ready program, NYSERDA has evaluated thousands of brownfield sites across the state to assess project viability. For sites deemed viable, NYSERDA will make them “build-ready”, which includes leading the permitting, design, and interconnection approval process. NYSERDA will also work with community members, businesses, and regional partners to explore community benefits of projects.

Through the program, Curran said NYSERDA brings the expertise that helps projects get across would-be hurdles.

“We’re private sector people, and if there’s that impediment that is going to be really challenging for a private company to do, and sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t,” Curran said. “But NYSERDA really can look at things and say, ‘how can we get a project like this accepted by the local community? How can we get it accepted by various state agencies?’”

Curran, who founded the companyBQ Energy in 2002 that specialized in converting brownfield sites to wind farms and eventually solar arrays with battery storage, said the company has been supportive of the Build-Ready program since NYSERDA began floating the idea several years ago. BQ Energy was acquired by CleanCapital in 2022.

“Changing policy is not the sort of thing that a private company does, but NYSERDA can. So, when they said that they were going to go out for the Build-Ready program to try to make more brownfield and landfill projects possible, we thought that was a great idea when they went out with their RFP,” Curran said of the program. “We support it completely,”

Curran said that something often overlooked regarding brownfields is that, based on their prior lives as factories, mines, energy generating plants and other uses, power lines and grid connectivity often already exist on the site. With the Benson Mines property, CleanCapital expects to have the option of using existing electricity infrastructure at the site. Permitting is often easier for brownfields, too, Curran said.

“It’s very common that if you’re going to build any kind of new facility in a community, there’s going to be apprehensions. That’s normal. But if you say you’re going to build it on the old mine site that people can look at and say, ‘that’s pretty ugly,’ I think that the permitting of the brownfield based solar project is much simpler than it would be on an agricultural side,” Curran said.

Curran said New York has developed a good model with NYSERDA’s Build-Ready program that could perhaps be replicated in other states. While incentive program solar projects on brownfields aren’t uncommon, Curran said he’s unaware of other states that take an active role in helping projects get off the ground past simply introducing developers to sites.

Future Build-Ready program RFPs

Four other sites have already been identified by NYSERDA for the program: Ithaca Tompkins International Airport; Vincent Welch; Witmer Road Landfill; and the town of East Hampton, which has progressed the least of its counterparts.

“Build-Ready Program continues to work through its portfolio of sites and determine when a site is ready for RFP. Currently, the Program has not set a date for the next RFP issuance,” an NYSERDA spokesperson told NPM in a statement.

While an RFP date isn’t confirmed yet, the spokesperson said NYSERDA last week issued a Request for Information (RFI) to “invite external stakeholders to review and comment on a portfolio of Distributed Generation (DG) scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects that NYSERDA’s Build-Ready Program is developing.”

The spokesperson said comments will be accepted until 3 p.m. on March 28. Following a review of feedback, NYSERDA will determine the next steps for the projects, “including if a future RFP will be issued.”