NEW SCOTLAND — The New Scotland Town Board recently set a public hearing for a proposed law regulating renewable energy storage and one to present a resource project years in the making. 

During its March 13 meeting, the board agreed to an April 10 public hearing for proposed Local Law E of 2023: Regulating Battery Energy Storage Systems, and to a special meeting to present the town’s new resource inventory project. 

The special meeting, set for April 24, at 6 p.m., is for the board and public to get a look at the interactive cataloging of New Scotland’s natural resources.

The town received $50,000 two-and-a-half years ago to map its natural inventory, which will be followed with a plan to preserve the resources. 

The state’s Environmental Protection Fund, which provided the grant, finances capital projects that protect the environment, and is administered by the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Estuary Program. 

The Hudson River Estuary Program covers a 153-mile stretch of water beginning at the Federal Lock and Dam in Troy and emptying into New York Harbor. 

The funding will give New Scotland an accounting overview of its natural assets and allow the town to have all of its resources — for example, its wetlands, streams, and viewsheds — accessible through interactive mapping. 

An open-space plan will follow the inventorying of the town’s resources.

The plan will outline the desired goals for the future preservation and enhancement of both the natural and man-made resources that are important to the quality of life in a community.

Explaining the resource inventory and subsequent mapping at the time of the award, Councilman Adam Greenberg said, if a resident or applicant to the planning or zoning boards had a question about a parcel of land, the property could be brought up on the mapping software to “see exactly what issues” the property “may or may not have.”

Greenberg said the mapping should streamline any application processes, in addition to being a new tool for the town’s building department. 

He went on to explain that the interactive mapping could be used by someone looking to buy property in town, and it could aid the buyer in determining if the site has water issues. This has been information available to those who’ve needed it, Greenberg said in November 2021, “but it might take a long time to find out.” 

Now it will be available with a few clicks, he added.

 Battery storage 

The board set a  6:15 p.m. public hearing on April 10 for its proposed rules governing battery energy storage systems, which capture excess power generated by intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. 

First presented in November, the bill provides a framework “for the designation of properties suitable for the location, construction, and operation of battery energy storage systems,” which are a shipping-container-sized way to stockpile renewable energy.

The bill defines a battery energy storage system as “one or more devices, assembled together, capable of storing energy in order to supply electrical energy at a future time,” but is not a “stand-alone 12-volt car battery, an electric motor vehicle, or a rechargeable battery for household appliances, or lawn equipment.”

The initial bill classified a battery energy storage system as either a Tier 1 or Tier 2 system; the latest update offers a Tier 3 classification as well. 

Tier 1 is a single residential system. It offers an aggregate energy capacity of up to 100 kilowatt-hours. 

A kilowatt-hour is a unit of measurement that signifies the amount of energy required to keep a device consuming one kilowatt, or 1,000 watts, running for one hour. For example, a lightbulb with a 100-watt rating would take 10 actual hours to consume one kilowatt-hour, while it would take a 2,000-watt device, like a portable electric heater, 30 real minutes to consume a kilowatt-hour.

For added context, the average household in the United States consumes about 30  kilowatt-hours each day. 

Tier 2 “is essentially if you have one or two of these systems on a site,” Councilman Dan Leinung explained during a previous meeting. “Those would be allowed anywhere in the town.”

Tier 3 defines the “really large” systems, Leinung said in February. “It would essentially be more than two or three of these [storage systems] together,” and it would be located either in the town’s industrial zone or within 500 feet of it.

Procurement

 The board also approved a new town procurement policy. The new policy states:

— Purchases exceeding $25,000 for supplies or equipment, or public works contracts over $45,000, require formal competitive bidding; 

—Purchases between $6,500 and $25,000 require a written request for proposals and written or faxed quotes from three vendors;

— Purchases between $3,000 and $6,500 require written or faxed quotes from two vendors;

— Purchases of $3,000 or less are at the discretion of the department head;

— Public works contracts between $13,000 and $45,000 require a written request for proposals and written or faxed proposals from three contractors;

— Public works contracts between $4,000 and $13,000 require a written request for proposals and written or faxed proposals from two contractors; and 

— Public works contracts of $4,000 or less are at the discretion of the department head.

Other business

In other business, the town board on March 13: 

— Announced coming detours due to county work on town roads. 

Starting as soon as March 25, drivers could see a Rowe Road detour due to work on its bridge. 

In July, the county legislature awarded James H. Maloy Inc. of Loudonville  an $896,000 contract for various deck replacements and repair work for three New Scotland bridges over the Onesquethaw Creek: at Rowe, Onesquethaw, and Plank roads.

The work, which was estimated by the county’s consulting engineer to cost $955,000, includes replacing existing timber decking on the steel-truss superstructures as well as, among other things, repointing existing masonry abutments, installing bridge rails, and touching up paint; 

— Signed new contracts for fire services. 

The deal with the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Company is $306,450 for fire protection and about $56,600 for ambulance services, up respectively from $289,150 and approximately $53,400 this year. 

The New Salem Volunteer Fire Department’s fire services contract is for $324,000, up from $318,000 this year; and

— Agreed to move from extensively typed minutes — almost verbatim transcripts of meetings, really — to minutes that record movements, resolutions, and who made the motion, because recordings of the meetings are available on the town’s website. The minutes will be similar to those kept by the villages of Altamont and Voorheesville.