By Barbara Pinckney
A Florida company whose area business
is directed by a Saratoga Springs man, is
moving forward with plans to build a solar
farm to serve the town of Lake George, even
as it waits to hear if it will also be doing
business with the village of Lake George.
Fort Lauderdale-based Overseas Lease
Group has entered into a 20-year contract
to provide solar energy to the town. Michael
Doud of Saratoga Springs is director of
business development for Overseas. He said
the expectation is that a 672,000 kilowatt
solar panel system will be installed in the
coming months.
Overseas is owned by George Badcock,
who also owns Hacker Boat Co. of
Queensbury.
“Unfortunately solar takes a while,” he
said. “You have a lot of people involved. You
need building permit approval, real estate
approval, facilities approval–but our
hope would be we would have the system
installed by the end of the year.”
While Overseas would develop and finance
the project, Apex Solar of Glens Falls
would do the construction.
The precise site of the farm is not yet
known. Doud said Overseas is looking at a
few sites within National Grid’s territory,
including Washington County. It needs
about three acres.
Overseas had originally talked about
building a 2.2 megawatt solar farm on about
12 acres, to serve both the town and village
of Lake George. That farm, which had an
estimated construction cost of about $6
million, remains a possibility.
“The town of Lake George just signed a
contract with our company, but the village
has reversed their decision to sign their
contract, on the advice of their lawyer, and I
believe they are going to put it out to public
bid,” Doud said. “So we are on hold with the
village until we hopefully win the contract, but we won’t know until that happens.”
But even if Overseas Lease wins the contract
with the village, it may not be able to
build a system to serve both the town and
the village at the same site. Doud said that
while that would be the ideal scenario, the
timing will determine whether it can be
done. If not, a second farm would be built.
Overseas also will be bidding on solar
contracts to serve Fort Edward and Bolton.
Doud said that while most New York municipalities
do not put their utility power
out to bid, “solar seems to get a little more
scrutiny.”
Regardless of what happens with the
three other communities, Overseas will be
building a solar farm to serve the town of
Lake George. The project will be of no cost to
the town, but should reduce its electric bills.
“Typically it is a substantial savings–between
15 [percent] and 20 percent in year
one and those savings will grow over time
as utility prices also increase,” Doud said.
“Town residents will feel less pressure from
taxes when the town starts saving money
on utilities.”
The technology is relatively simple. The
solar panels collect about 92 percent of the
sunlight they receive and reflect the rest.
The cells contained in the panels convert
that sunlight to DC electricity, the type
found in fuel cells and car batteries. It
then flows through to an inverter–which
changes it to AC power–through a series
of meters and into the utility grid to be
delivered to the town. The remote metering
means the farm does not have to be located
near Lake George.
Overseas Lease, which Badcock formed in
2003, leases vehicles, specialty equipment
and shelters to government entities and
businesses all over the world. Doud said
the company recently expanded into solar
energy as part of its decision to enter other
growing markets.