Local farm helping environment one solar panel at a time

MOOERS | Larry and Marlene Ashline have owned their farm since 1974. Previously Larry Ashline's father owned the farm which he bought back in 1956. The Ashline farm started out as a dairy farm, but in 2008 it was converted to an organic dairy farm and remained that way until the Ashline's decided to sell their milking herd. Currently, the farm still produces hay to sell. That's not where the story for this local sustainable farm ends. Back in 2017, the Ashline's received a letter from Delaware River Solar, more commonly known as DRS, who was interested in using some of Larry and Marlene Ashline's property to build a solar farm. The Ashline's didn't really consider the solar farm until after they sold off their milking herd. July 8 marks the official opening of their fifth solar project, the first four being through DRS. "We need to help the environment, we need to help everyone if we want to continue living here on earth," Marlene Ashline said. Marlene Ashline is motivated by the environment and the sustainability these projects will bring to the farm. "One of the things that we certainly prize here in the North Country is our rural landscape. We know our rural landscape is challenged, particularly our dairy farmers but other farmers as well and their ability to host these kinds of developments allows many of the future generations of staying on the farm and keeping those operations going and therefore preserving our rural landscape in the North Country and it's important that people understand that. We don't want to see our farms lost, we don't want to see our rural landscape disappear, which is happening in many places here in America but this kind of development and the income it provides to family farmers helps them sustain their operations," Garry Douglas, North Country Chamber of Commerce president, said. "It's also a great use of land and involves working with the local community and local landowners like the Ashline's, with the business community that Garry represents, and for all of those reasons we think that it's just a great, it's just a great addition to the community," stated the Managing Director of Kendall Sustainable Infrastructure, KSI, Ken Lehman. KSI manages investments into projects such as solar and wind energy products. "It really is the future so these will, these panels will be here, they will be producing power from the sun for probably about the next 30 years or so, which is a wonderful thing and I think everybody feels really great about it," said Lehman. The solar farm located at 3596 State Route 11 sits on about 25 acres of land and contains about 30,000 solar panels. They estimate to be producing about 5.5 megawatts of power, which equals close to 1,000 homes worth of power over the course of a year. From this specific solar farm, 40 percent of the power produced is supplied to Corning, in Corning, New York while the other 60 percent of power is consumed locally. They currently have about 500 consumers signed up to receive power in the area. This solar farm was built with the help of GreenSpark Solar, a solar company that mostly works in the Rochester, Central New York, and Western New York areas. "We started our company eight years ago with this idea that there's a lot of power coming from the sun, there's a future in it. It's cleaner, it's long-lasting, it's very simple to operate and so we decided we would really dedicate a company to building to financing and to owning and operating this exact type of project," Lehman stated. The new solar farm is just one of the 60 projects KSI manages. Construction started on the farm in September of 2020 and concluded the week before Christmas. "We're just happy that we could provide all this solar for the future, we're just trying to help out the planet and hopefully everything just keeps going forward the way it has been. It's been wonderful, it's been successful so far and we're very happy to help out," Marlene Ashline concluded.

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Local farm helping environment one solar panel at a time

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