Around noon on weekdays, a dozen or so workers in lime green construction vests can often be seen lining up at Stewart’s Shops in Pine Plains, buying lunch before heading east on Route 199.
Their destination is a stretch of land just before the Prospect Hill Road Extension, where 42,000 solar panels now rise across 42 acres near the Central Hudson substation at Pulvers Corners.
After years of review, public debate, litigation, and site work, the Pulvers Corners solar project has entered its final phase. If the current schedule holds, electricity from the array is expected to begin flowing into the grid this fall, supplying a community solar program that offers participating Central Hudson customers a 10% discount on their electric bills.
The project, first proposed in November 2022 by Carson Power, which sold it in 2025 to Nexamp, is expected to produce about 10 megawatts of alternating-current electricity, enough to power roughly 2,000 homes, according to Nexamp.
“We are in a big push to get all the equipment installed over the next two or three months, and then we’ll begin the interconnection process and required testing with Central Hudson Gas & Electricity,” said Keith Hevenor, a Nexamp spokesperson.
The estimated “permission to operate” date is Oct. 30, Hevenor said.
That milestone would mark the end of a long path for one of the more closely watched solar projects in the Pine Plains area. The project received final regulatory approval in December 2023 after a contentious public process, followed by a lawsuit that proved unsuccessful.Â
Carson Power then missed a seasonal deadline to clear trees before spring, a restriction tied to protections for endangered bats. As a result, clear-cutting of about 30 acres did not take place until December 2024, with logs hauled out the following summer.
Grading and road construction began last October. Trenching for cables and the installation of support posts for inverters followed in February. Solar panels arrived in March. By April, the current phase of work was underway, with between 30 and 40 Nexamp employees, including electricians, machinists, metalworkers and vegetation specialists, active at the site.
Those crews are expected to remain there for the next six to nine months.
Central Hudson has also completed upgrades to the nearby substation and coordinated with Nexamp on the infrastructure needed to connect the project to the grid. Nexamp paid for specific infrastructure related to the interconnection, according to Central Hudson.
For local residents, the project’s most immediate benefit may come through Nexamp’s community solar program, which has begun accepting sign-ups in the area.
The program does not send electricity directly from Pulvers Corners to participating homes. Instead, the solar array sends electricity into the grid. Nexamp receives credits from Central Hudson for the renewable energy produced, and those credits are then used to provide discounts to subscribers.
“If you join a community solar project in New York, you are not buying energy in the open market,” said Joe Jenkins, a Central Hudson spokesperson. “You are subscribing to a clean energy share and receiving bill credits for the renewable energy it produces. You’re essentially subscribing to a portion of the solar array, and in return, a credit is applied to your utility bill for doing so.”
Bob Barnett / The New Pine Plains Herald
Customers who sign up are billed separately by Nexamp. After enrolling, they receive confirmation about whether solar is available in their area and may be placed on a waiting list before being assigned to a project. Nexamp’s materials say the average wait time for placement is about four months.
It is not guaranteed that a Pine Plains-area subscriber will be connected specifically to the Pulvers Corners array. But once the project is operating, its 10 megawatts will add to the pool of solar generation that makes the discounts possible.
The project comes as residents across the region continue to look for ways to reduce electricity costs. Community solar is one option. Homeowners may also buy or lease rooftop solar systems and connect them to the grid through Central Hudson.
A smaller, more immediate option is available at the Pine Plains Free Library, which began offering Home Boost kits in February through a program with Central Hudson. The kits allow Central Hudson customers with active library cards to conduct a basic home energy audit using a smartphone.
“If you have an active library card, and you’re a Central Hudson customer, you can borrow a Home Boost kit,” said Annie Mallozzi, assistant director at the library. “You get a cable for your phone, Android or Apple, plus a thermal camera and a black light.”
Borrowers download an app and use the thermal camera to check for areas where their homes may be losing energy. The audit is paid for by Central Hudson and has a stated value of $99, according to the utility.
“Plus, while supplies last, you can get a free weatherization kit, including caulk and other things to improve your insulation,” Mallozzi said.
The library has already signed out several kits.
For now, the most visible sign of the region’s solar transition may be the workers stopping for lunch at Stewart’s before heading back to Pulvers Corners. By late fall, if testing and interconnection proceed as planned, the panels they are installing are expected to become part of the electric grid — and part of the monthly utility bills of residents who choose to subscribe.
“Enough power for 2000 homes”
Is that on the approximately 175 sunny days that New York has?
What a shame to turn our farm land into thermal updrafts that cause more violent thunderstorms. Do your research people.
And in 10 years when those things are done leeching chemicals into said farm land and they become obsolete, they will take the panels away and leave all the footings so the land can never be used again.
Just stupid.