A future in which the Village of Montgomery may provide its residents solar energy options and electric vehicle charging stations may not be that far away, but there is a lot of homework to do in the meantime.

During their October 3 meeting, Montgomery Village Board Members examined ways of implementing green energy into the village, focusing on the benefits and drawbacks of solar energy and electric charging stations.

Trustee Randi Picarello opened the conversation with her findings on several community solar options, in which residents could utilize the energy without installing solar panels on the roof of their home, but rather draw it from an offsite location. According to the nysderda.ny.gov website, residents can subscribe to the community solar project and receive credits on their regular electric bill for the clean energy produced. Everyone, including renters and co-op/condo owners, can save money by accessing the clean energy produced by these solar farms.

Picarello spent time researching Joule Energy, a New Orleans-based solar company specializing in engineering, procurement and construction. According to the company’s website, Joule has ranked in the top 50 on Solar Power World’s Top Solar Contractors list. In 2022, they were ranked number 46th overall, and 8th for all Electrical Subcontractors.

Village Attorney William Frank warned the board that Joule must carefully consider the energy supplier, which needs to obtain enough energy credits, otherwise, the integration could fall through as it did with New Paltz.

“The issue becomes the company that’s selected; they receive energy credits, and that’s how they finance their operations, Frank explained. “And if their energy credits go south, then they go south, which is what happened with New Paltz. And something of a royal mess with the negotiation between Joule and the energy provider and the village, and all the other municipalities who jumped in on the lawsuit,.”

Mayor Steven Brescia asserted that he would like to delve deeper into solar energy and speak to other municipalities about their experiences with integration.

The board also discussed the possibility of installing electric vehicle-charging stations somewhere in the village. While the board was open to the idea, the discussion persisted of where they would go, and who would pay for them.

“The installation costs are high without a grant, and there are no guarantees of incentives being this comprehensive in coming years. A project like this gives us an advantage when applying for grants like New York Forward,” Picarello explained. “When we’re pushing for this New York Forward Grant, that gives us extra scoring points because it’s showing that we’re taking an initiative to integrate historic charm and technology and energy innovations. And it shows that we have a diverse plan for improvement and implementing it, which is something that our approval is highly reliant on.”

Brescia, while not opposed to the idea, asserted that he does not want electric chargers built on village parking, among other potential issues.

“I don’t have a problem if it’s somewhere down by the park, by the police station where we have a couple of EV stations. I do not want to see an EV parking lot where our current municipal parking lot is,” Brescia said. “I don’t think we have enough electric vehicles in this village, if hardly at all, I’ll be honest with you. And I don’t think it’ll help the tourism that much, to take prime locations in downtown Montgomery, which are premium, for these EV stations.”

Trustee Mike Hembury said he didn’t want the village to have the headache of maintaining them, or repairing any that might be vandalized.

“These things are getting vandalized like box cars…that’s why they’re in gas stations or fuel stations because there’s a fuel manager watching…once we take ownership of it, and this happens, I don’t want that burden,” Hembury said.

Hembury suggested the village should not have to pay for the charging stations.

‘This is a jewel of the Hudson Valley,” he said. “We shouldn’t be paying for anything They should be paying us to come in here.”

Several residents urged the village to move forward with the idea.

“Mike was worried about vandalism and all this kind of stuff. I have never seen any charging station vandalized personally,” said Don Berger. “We always bragged about that. We’re the safest community and we’re worrying about vandalism in our village. We bragged about it. So I don’t think that should be a hindrance. Furthermore, the federal government has set guidelines of the EV movement to 2030.”

Berger urged the board to be more proactive.
“I don’t think you should have a whole load of them,” he said. “Maybe a couple.”