Cider Solar Rules: Greenbacker Kicks off Construction on 500-MW, $950M New York Solar Farm

    May 16, 2025
    Spread out across 2,500 acres on some 60 parcels of private land north of the Elba and Oakfield villages, Cider Solar will utilize ground-mounted PV panels on galvanized steel tracker racking structures, according to Hecate Energy. All phases of construction should be under way this summer and completed next year.
    Image credit Hecate Energy
    68278e0af4cb318b6a62182a Hecate Energy

    The largest solar project in New York state renewable energy history has begun early construction work and is on its way to eventually generating up to 500 MW of photovoltaic (PV) capacity by late 2026.

    Investor Greenbacker Renewable Energy proceeded after receiving a special siting permit from state regulators for the Cider Solar farm in Genesee County. Greenbacker secured $950 million to fund the project, which was originally developed by Hecate Energy.

    Cider Solar is expected to supply about 1 million MWh of renewable electricity per year, the equivalent to power approximately 120,000 New York households.

    “Cider offers tangible economic benefits to Genesee County communities and the broader region, and it represents an important milestone in New York’s clean energy transition that will power the state forward for years to come,” said Dan de Boer, Greenbacker Interim CEO and Head of Infrastructure, in a statement.

    Image credit Greenbacker
    greenbacker_solar

    Cider’s initial construction phase will focus on substantive civil and mechanical activities like placement of steel piling and racking for solar modules. All phases of construction are expected to be fully underway by mid-summer, including electrical wiring and installation of the high-voltage utility interconnection infrastructure.

    Spread out across 2,500 acres on some 60 parcels of private land north of the Elba and Oakfield villages, Cider Solar will utilize ground-mounted PV panels on galvanized steel tracker racking structures, according to Hecate Energy. All phases of construction should be under way this summer, including the electrical writing and high-voltage utility interconnection infrastructure.

    Greenbacker acquired the Cider Solar project from Hecate Energy in January. The earliest permits were decided several years ago, but the final permits to build arrived less than a month later from the New York Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Transmission.

    Construction of Cider Solar Farm will employ hundreds of workers. It also should deliver more than $100 million in revenue for the Genesee County communities through property taxes, host agreements and tax benefits.

    “Our union is pleased to provide local, highly skilled labor supporting Cider’s construction,” said Carpenter’s Local 276 Business Manager Chris Austin. “While this is an important moment for New York’s green energy ambitions, it is an even bigger indicator of the growing strength of our state’s specialized workforce—which is drawn chiefly from labor unions like ours—to support projects like Cider in the Empire State.”

    The Cider Solar Farm also will incorporate agrivoltaics practices by hosting rotational sheep grazing on more than 300 acres of the project footprint.

    Once completed Cider will be the largest of New York utility-scale solar projects to date. Overall, New York has more than 6.8 GW in solar PV capacity across 247,000 residential, community, industrial, commercial and utility-scale solar installations.

    The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) ranks New York state 9th for total installed capacity, which accounts for nearly 6% of the total electricity resource mix. California, Texas, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina are the top five states for solar capacity as of 2024, according to the SEIA.

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Managing Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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