ALBANY — The New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES or the Office) announced today they have issued a siting permit for Apex Clean Energy to build a major wind facility, Heritage Wind, LLC (Heritage Wind), a 184.8-megawatt (MW) wind facility in the Town of Barre, Orleans County. This wind facility is expected to generate enough clean energy power to more than 45,000 New York homes and provide over $54 million in new revenue for both the Town of Barre and local school districts. 

The Office’s decision follows a detailed review and robust public participation process to ensure that the proposed facility meets or exceeds the requirements of Section 94-c of the Executive Law and its implementing regulations. This wind facility and other major renewable energy facilities permitted and currently under Office review are vital to meet the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act’s (CLCPA) aggressive carbon reduction and clean energy targets to combat climate change.

“The approval of Heritage Wind carefully balances environmental, community, and policy considerations, and meaningfully advances New York State toward its nation-leading energy goal of 70 percent renewable energy by 2030.” said ORES Executive Director Houtan Moaveni.

On January 13, 2021, applicant transferred its pending Public Service Law article 10 application with a completeness determination from the New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment to the Executive Law § 94-c process.  The transfer application was deemed complete upon filing pursuant to Executive Law § 94-c. The 184.8 MW project will consist of up to 33 wind turbines with approximately 37 miles of collection lines to deliver power from the site to the collection substation, eventually connecting to National Grid’s existing Lockport-Mortimer 115kV transmission line. The project has been under ORES review since January 2021.

Heritage Wind will create hundreds of jobs and significant local spending. Apex Clean Energy paid $184,800 in intervenor funds to enable municipal and community groups to fully participate in the review of the facilities. In October 2021, the Barre Town Board voted to approve a Host Community Agreement (HCA) with Heritage Wind that will bring more that $40 million in new revenue to the community over the next 25 years.

Under the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act (the Act), New York State created the nation's first Office of Renewable Energy Siting to improve and streamline the process for environmentally responsible and cost-effective siting of large-scale renewable energy projects across New York while delivering health, environmental, and economic benefits to local communities. Today's announcement demonstrates swift progress under the state's recently expanded Clean Energy Standard and advances New York’s goal to obtain 70 percent of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2030 as mandated in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

Today’s decision may be obtained by going to the Office’s website at https://ores.ny.gov/permit-applications.

New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan

New York State's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York is on a path to achieve its mandated goal of a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy wide carbon neutrality. It builds on New York's unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy including over $21 billion in 91 large-scale renewable projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and over $1.2 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting more than 150,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector in 2019, a 2,100 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011 and a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Under the Climate Act, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at least 35 percent with a goal of 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities, and advance progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.

About ORES

The Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES or Office) is the first-of-its-kind state agency dedicated solely to environmentally responsible and cost-effective siting of renewable energy facilities and was established by the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act in April 2020. The Office consolidates the environmental review and permitting of major renewable energy facilities to ensure that siting decisions are predictable, responsible, and done in a timely manner with input from local governments and host communities. On March 3, 2021, the Office adopted comprehensive regulations including a set of uniform standards and conditions to implement the Act. The Office is designed to enable New York to obtain 70 percent of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2030, as required under New York’s nation-leading climate plan, enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. For more information on ORES, please visit www.ores.ny.gov.