PUTNAM VALLEY – Officials in Putnam Valley hope to pass a moratorium before year’s end protecting the town from data centers as well as large-scale wind energy conversion projects and battery storage facilities.
Councilman Louie Luongo called such facilities a “big concern,” adding: “The amount of electricity they use is enormous and we are currently having enough trouble as it is with the amount of electricity that’s being produced. The more things we add to it, the more strenuous it is on the grid. We don’t have enough to supply what we need right now.”
Luongo, a career volunteer firefighter and current battalion coordinator with the Putnam Bureau of Emergency Services, also expressed concern over the amount of water used by these projects: “If one was proposed in Putnam Valley, that would mean multiple wells would have to be dug. Our infrastructure and aquafer are so fragile as it is,” he said.
Democratic Supervisor Alison Jolicoeur agreed with her GOP colleague. “Parking lots and rooftops are the only appropriate place for solar panels… especially in a time when we need access to healthy food,” she said.
Council Member Sherry Howard also supported a new moratorium on battery storage facilities, solar panels, and data centers. “We can’t even always support our own businesses with the amount of water we have,” she said. “How are we going to have data centers?”
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