Irish and Proyect break ground
SUGAR LOAF – In a partnership between community solar installation
company SunCommon and the Orange County Citizens Foundation, ground was
broken Wednesday on Foundation-owned property in Sugar Loaf for the county’s
first small-scale community solar project.
Jeffrey Irish, the vice president and general manager of SunCommon, who
merged his 16-year-old Rhinebeck-based Hudson Solar company, said the
future is shifting from fossil fuel to renewable energy production.
“The UN just came out with an updated report on where we are headed with regard to climate change in the world and we are going to have to stop burning things to make electricity and this is the way of the future,” Irish said.
This solar farm is expected to be up and running, serving some 70 households, by the end of the year.
Citizens Foundation President Nancy Proyect said the Sugar Loaf project will also include the planting of flower gardens that will attract pollinating bees.
One year ago, Irish’s company developed a community solar farm in Rhinebeck.
