Business View Magazine | May 2019

183 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MAY 2019 participated in two Solar Decathalons, one in China in 2013, and the other one in California, in 2015,” Clark continues. “Both times, the colleges got together and built a house.” (The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition, comprised of 10 contests that challenge student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy. The winners are those teams that best blend design, and architectural and engineering excellence, with innovation, market potential, building efficiency, and smart energy production.) “So, we have a long history of being involved in renewable energy from the college perspective.” In 2015, Houghton College completed a 2.6 MW solar project - “the largest solar array ever implemented on a New York college campus,” says Angela McKay, Assistant Director of Economic Development & Planning. “Since then, we had a few projects on the horizon. One is the Alle-Catt energy project - that’s a 380 MW wind farm that’s going to consist of 120 turbines. It’s a $500 million project and currently the biggest wind project being proposed in New York State; construction is planned for 2020, on the northwestern side of our County. We also have another solar energy project, called the Moraine Solar Energy Center - an 80 MW Solar Farm, with construction anticipated in 2021. That’s a $100 million project and that’s going to cover about 500 acres in the town of Burns in the northeastern side of Allegany County. We also have some smaller scale, community solar projects just starting to take off. One is in the community of Caneadea. The project being discussed is enough to power up to 20 homes. Small scale solar projects are also being discussed in other communities, including Wellsville and Friendship.” Another renewable energy project in Allegany County is the SUNY (State University of New York) Alfred Biorefinery and Commercialization Center. “We’ve been working on that for about three or four years and we have state and federal resources to build it,” Clark reports. Just this month, New York State pledged $6.6 million for the Center, which provides the remaining funding ALLEGANY COUNTY , NEW YORK