Can solar farms subsidize affordable cohousing?
From: April Roggio (april.roggiogmail.com)
Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2019 11:55:26 -0800 (PST)
Hi there,

I am a member of a forming group in upstate New York, very interested in
creating sustainable cohousing near one of our rural villages, hopefully
fairly close to the Capital.

We have been investigating a possibility which seems a bit too good to be
true. We have land in mind - a former historic farmstead, about 30 minutes
to Albany, minutes from our interstate, and close to nearby towns. As you
might know, New York State has been very eager to contribute to solutions
to mitigate climate change, and has been quite enthusiastic with regard to
renewables. A regional solar installer has expressed interest in working
with us - they are interested in leasing some small fraction of the land,
about 20 acres, to use as a solar farm. They are willing to pay a not
insubstantial amount of money in a monthly stipend, which could be used to
pay back our initial land investment, as well as subsidize affordable
housing. We have provided the land information to them, and they are
apparently going to check the state of the electric at the road, and then
determine whether the land is suitable.

So, my question for you is: are you aware of any precedent for this? I did
search the archives and didn't find much, but I might be using the wrong
search terms. And do you have any advice with regard to how to proceed?

Many thanks,
April

PS: Been loving the web chats - thank you for hosting them!

Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.