BY JOSH DAVISNorth Country This Week

CANTON— The town will receive about $7,500 per year in exchange for hosting the roughly 30-acre Grassy Grove solar development on state Highway 310. 

The payments will come as part of a 15-year host community benefit agreement between the town of Canton and Grassy Grove Solar East, LLC, a Delaware-based energy company. 

The agreement was accepted unanimously at the Oct. 8 meeting of the town board. 

The host community benefit agreement states that the solar company must pay the town of Canton $1,500 per megawatt per year for 15 years, equating to $112,500 for the 5-megawatt development. 

The agreement also includes a 2% annual escalator clause. 

Canton Supervisor Mary Ann Ashley noted that the town has “done many of these,” and described the resolution as a formality. 

The town of Canton also granted a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement for the project at the September meeting of the town board. 

That agreement allows the company, which plans to install solar panels on about 30 acres of a 92-acre parcel of land, to provide  annual payments between roughly $25,000 and $33,000 over the course of 15 years, rather than pay taxes on the land. 

The Town of Canton Planning Board approved a conditional site plan for the Grassy Grove project late in 2023. 

The project is expected to cost upward of $11.8 million, roughly $8 million of which will fund construction. The solar company is also slated to pay the town a $50,000 building permit fee prior to construction. 

The project will create zero full-time jobs in the area but will employ 35 construction workers in its first year of development.