Daniel Zuckerman is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Hecate Energy LLC has scaled back the size of its proposed solar project by 55 percent. The company is looking to build the 50-megawatt solar farm near Farm to Market Road in Coxsackie, on property owned by the Flach family. Under the new plan, 170,000 solar panels would be erected on 400 acres, rather than the 890 acres originally proposed. The farm will produce 93,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to supply 13,000 homes. The plan allows the Flach family to continue farming on approximately 500 acres. Hecate does not anticipate negative impacts on health, air or water, a company spokesman said, and the visual impact of the panels will be mitigated by the installation of fencing and planting of trees. Saving Greene: Citizens for Sensible Solar, a group opposed to the Hecate project, say the company's plan has not changed, and that developers regularly purchase more land than needed for siting panels. “Hecate has still not committed to where they will be placing panels, and they have not reduced the size or footprint of this project,” the group said. The possible effects on wildlife habitats and viewsheds have to be addressed, town board member Michael Veeder said. “There’s a lot of hurdles to clear before going forward,” he said. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.