Diane Valden reports in The Upstater that on Aug. 25 the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting deemed Hecate Energy’s application to site a large solar facility in Craryville complete. The Shepherd’s Run Solar project would place almost 200,000 solar panels on about 228 acres of an 880-acre total project area in the Columbia County hamlet. The 60-megawatt solar facility would be east of the Taconic Hills School campus and north of Copake Lake in and around the Copake hamlet of Craryville. Copake Zoning Law does not allow a project of this size, but New York has streamlined siting process for renewable energy projects, known as 94-c. Many local residents have voiced opposition to the project. Now the state group overseeing the project has 60-days to either publish a draft permit for public comment or deny permission for Hecate to move forward. Town officials released a statement saying they do not believe the application is complete. It said, “Deputy Supervisor Richard Wolf, who has spearheaded the Town’s response to the Hecate application has pointed out that the corporation ‘has not fully addressed the impacts of its proposed 267-acre solar factory on the Taghkanic Headwaters Conservation Plan. It has failed to prove that constructing 200,000 solar panels and inverters, and drilling beneath wetlands will not adversely affect the wetlands, streams and Taghkanic Creek (an important source of Hudson’s drinking water), all of which are on or under the proposed construction site.’” Read more about this story in The Upstater.