Cascadilla Community Solar Farm at Cornell University connects to NYSEG grid

Campus Sustainability Office February 10, 2020
Building & Energy
Cascadilla solar farm as seen from drone
The Cascadilla Solar Farm at Cornell University is the largest solar project developed by the University to date. The solar array will help the University meet its goal of carbon neutrality by 2035. | Photo: Facilities & Campus Services

On Jan. 17, the Cascadilla Community Solar Farm at Cornell University received approval from the New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG) to begin exporting clean solar power to the grid.

The 18-megawatt solar farm is the university’s sixth large-scale solar project developed in partnership with Distributed Sun LCC and will add over 30 gigawatt hours annually onto the grid to serve about 3,000 residential homes.

Under New York’s new community solar program, electricity from the farm is sold to NYSEG retail customers through Solar Farms New York. With the renewable energy credits from this project, the equivalent of 20% of the Ithaca campus’ annual electricity use is generated by renewables.