Abundant Solar looking at former chemical site for solar farm
The former Lewiston home of Stauffer Chemical could see new life with a Canadian company eying the site for a community solar farm.
Abundant Solar Power, an American subsidiary of the Toronto-based SolarBank, is eying the site at 5607 Old Lewiston Road, next to the Niagara Power Project and Riverdale Cemetery, for the 19-acre community project. Spokesman Matt McGregor said plans would feature roughly 8,000 panels and generate around 4.83 megawatts of power.
'We're looking forward to developing more projects in Western New York,' McGregor said. 'This is just one we have in our pipeline.'
The Niagara Smelting Co. was the original plant built on the land in 1916, with Stauffer Chemical buying it in 1942. From there, the company would manufacture industrial chemicals like chlorine, silicone, sodium hydroxide and, after a major addition in 1957, boron trichloride.
The Lewiston facility closed in 1976, and the plant was demolished in 1980. The land is listed as a Superfund site, with workers at the plant having been exposed to asbestos.
Working on sites like this is an Abundant Solar specialty, having completed several projects in New York state on brownfields and former landfills. It has a lease to operate with the landowner and went through an RFP process in 2023.
'The way we design systems is to not disturb the remedial features of the site,' McGregor said, with their ballasted racking system not penetrating the ground. They also need state Department of Environmental Conservation approvals before doing anything on the site.
This project is one of 26 projects Solarbank has in the works across Upstate New York, including one South Buffalo project with battery manufacturer Viridi featuring a hybrid solar-battery energy storage. The $7 million project on a former landfill would generate 3.06 megawatts of solar power and have 1.2 megawatt hours of battery storage.
The combined power of the 26 solar facilities is estimated at 203.5 megawatts, enough to power around 26,500 residential customers.
Solarbank is still in the interconnection process with local utility companies, figuring out if the electrical grid has sufficient capacity to carry the power generated. They will present this proposal to the Town of Lewiston after that is complete.
Last year, the Lewiston Town Board passed a zoning law limiting any future solar farms within its borders to only be in industrially-zoned districts, with this proposed site is.
Depending on when it receives all approvals from the town and the DEC, McGregor said they would start construction next year and take four to six months to build.
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