P-J photo by Sara Holthouse The town of Clymer was presented with some minor changes to the planned solar project for Upper Road by McKinstry Generate Capital during their February meeting.

CLYMER — As work continues on solar projects in the town of Clymer, some changes have been needed to be made for the project set for Upper Road, and the town board was recently presented with those changes.

The project formerly known as the RIC Energy project is now under McKinstry Generate Capital as of July, and at the February town board meeting members of the team presented to the town via Zoom on some specific changes to the project, mostly minor.

A representative with Generate Capital said that while it has been a while since the town has heard anything on the project, they have been hard at work, including partnering with McKinstry who will be constructing the project. The biggest change the company is having to make to the project that has already been presented to the board is moving the driveway because of a request from National Grid.

“In talking with National Grid about the project, they came on site and saw that a portion of the driveway actually goes under a fairly high line and it crosses the easement of the South transmission line,” the representative said. “So they requested that we move the driveway east by 20 feet and in doing that the wire distance increased and we’re not allowed to have trees under that wire.”

They added this is all new information that RIC Energy would not have been able to obtain until this point in the project. Generate Capital presented the town with some visual representations of the change as required by National Grid, including the approved landscape plan and the proposed adjustment. The screening is the same, and it was said that they are required to stay 37 feet back from either side of the high line that was found by National Grid, so the driveway needs to be extended and two additional poles added. No landscape screening is allowed to be in the way of those poles.

Town Supervisor Brian Willink said the new changes have been looked at by the town’s engineer as well, and asked about the connection between the two companies McKinstry and Generate Capital. Representatives gave a brief background on Generate Capital which will be the owner and operator of the project, providing the financing, and McKinstry will be the engineers building the project.

It was noted that some minor design changes may be made on the RIC design for the solar panels themselves, and that responses to the town’s engineer with her questions should be given soon. National Grid has also been consulted about the new plan. On the town’s side the project needs to go through engineering and legal, and Willink said through the email from the town’s engineer it was indicated that this will be a relatively minor change.

“We still have to wait for her to give the final approval for us to go forward with any type of approval here,” Willink said. “So, that’s kind of where it’s at.”

The next phase for the company is a lengthy approval process with National Grid, so they would be looking for approval from the town before advancing with that, and it was noted that this discussion now was to make sure that the town could weigh in. The panels themselves will still be hidden behind the hill, and the overall scope of the project will not be extended, representatives said, these will just be some minor adjustments. The town will put approval on their agenda for approval following confirmation of approval from the town’s engineering and legal teams.