Wind and Solar Land Leasing in St. Lawrence County, New York

Rich Road Solar Energy Center: a real, large, already-permitted project

The clearest example of renewable-energy development in St. Lawrence County is Rich Road Solar Energy Center, a 240-megawatt solar facility paired with a 20-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS) in the Town of Canton, developed by EDF Renewables. The project received its final Major Renewable Energy Facility siting permit from the state's Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) on September 24, 2024. Reporting on the project describes it generating more than $1.2 million annually in local tax revenue for host municipalities and more than $500,000 in direct lease and neighbor-agreement payments to area landowners -- meaning landowners near the project, not just those under a lease with the developer, can be party to a separate 'good neighbor' payment agreement, a detail worth asking about directly if you're evaluating land adjoining the site rather than a parcel actually inside its boundary.

Separately, developer Avangrid has proposed a wind project reported at up to 40 turbines across rural parts of St. Lawrence County. This research pass could not confirm that proposal's current name, exact host towns, or approval status, and does not assume it is still active in its originally reported form -- if a parcel is being marketed with reference to a wind lease, confirm the specific project's current status directly with the developer or the county Planning Department rather than relying on an older news report.

A real patchwork: some towns have their own battery-storage moratoria

Because zoning authority in St. Lawrence County rests with each individual town (the same structure described on this county's hub for standard zoning), local appetite for renewable-energy siting varies town by town -- and that variation is documented, not theoretical. At least four towns -- Brasher, Norfolk, Oswegatchie, and Parishville -- have adopted their own local moratoria specifically on new battery energy storage system development, reported as running into mid-to-late 2026. A moratorium town cannot currently approve a new BESS project through its own local process during the moratorium period. The county's own Planning Department maintains a dedicated 'Local Solar Laws' reference page tracking which towns have adopted their own solar or storage-specific local laws -- a genuinely useful starting point for confirming a specific town's current stance before assuming either a blanket welcome or a blanket ban applies countywide.

That local control has real limits, though: as described on the wind-solar-leasing page for Seneca County elsewhere in this project's coverage, any project of 25 megawatts or more (like Rich Road) is sited through the state's ORES/Section 94-c process, which can decline to apply a specific local law it finds unreasonably burdensome in light of the state's climate targets -- meaning a town's own moratorium or restrictive local law is not necessarily the last word on a large-enough project, even though it fully controls smaller, sub-25-MW proposals.

What to verify before treating a lease offer as bankable

• Which specific town the parcel sits in, and whether that town currently has a solar or BESS moratorium or its own specific local law in place -- check the county Planning Department's Local Solar Laws page and confirm directly with the town, since this varies materially across St. Lawrence County's many towns.
• Whether an offered lease or "good neighbor" payment is for a parcel actually inside an ORES-approved project boundary (like Rich Road's in Canton) or simply nearby, since neighbor-agreement payments are typically smaller and structured differently than an on-site lease.
• Whether a wind-lease offer references a project that is still active -- confirm current status directly with the developer given how much reported wind proposals can change between initial announcement and permitting.
• Decommissioning and site-restoration obligations at lease end, and whether they are addressed in ORES's own permit conditions, in the private lease, or both.