In upstate N.Y., people favor solar power but see influx of solar farms as another case of downstate domination

This photo of a solar farm accompanied The Altamont Enterprise's story about the study.

"Upstate New Yorkers, who are otherwise broadly in favor of renewable energy development," oppose utility-scale solar developments in their own communities, reports Noah Zweifel of The Altamont Enterprise, citing a study by the state's Cornell University. The study was published in the journal Rural Sociology.

A survey of more than 400 Upstate residents found that "The factors most correlated with stance on solar development were those that related in some way to sense of place, such as how secure people felt in their own community, how strongly they identify with an upstate point-of-view, and whether they feel their area can compete fairly against other areas for its own interests," Zweifel reports. "In other words, people — in this case mostly older, politically moderate, rural residents — were most reactive to a sense that upstate New York wasn’t getting a fair shake, and that the proliferation of solar facilities in their area is yet another example of upstaters shouldering the burden of downstaters’ needs."

The award-winning Albany County weekly followed up last week with an editorial headlined "Urban and rural: We are one state and must find common ground." After noting the long history of conflicts between Upstate and New York City, it notes, "There is little local benefit from utility-scale solar facilities as they are designed to feed directly into a centralized grid, rather than being redistributed locally to lower local energy bills. The usual benefit a municipality receives from a utility — through tax payments — is circumvented for solar facilities because the state, wanting to encourage solar, has lifted that requirement, letting developers pay far less in payments in lieu of taxes." But the editorial points out that some local governments have required "full tax payments, as they would for any other facility. Further, and more importantly, municipalities can gauge the desires of their own residents to see what resources — whether it be rich farmland or scenic vistas — are commonly viewed as worth preserving and zone accordingly, thus dictating the most suitable places for solar facilities to be built."