A solar deal that could have meant millions to Schoharie County has broken down at the finish line.
Blenheim Supervisor Don Airet said Friday that NextEra Energy “has declined to move forward at the Public Safety Facility” despite it being “damn near a done deal.”
NextEra was one of just a couple firms that responded to supervisors’ RFP for a five-megawatt solar project at the new jail. 
NextEra is the same firm that’s looking to build a 50-megawatt commercial solar farm in the Town of Sharon, but the two projects aren’t related.
At the jail, the electricity generated would have powered the new facility and generated $3-4 million over the next 20 years through a “benchmark” PILOT of $30,000 per megawatt annually, Mr. Airey said, but after seven or eight months of work, “We get nothing now.”
“What really bothers me, is that I felt we had a good working relationship,” he said. 
“We’d established a good revenue stream to help offset the cost of the jail.”
But when near-constant emails suddenly stopped, he became suspicious and a phone call Wednesday revealed the worst.
Mr. Airey said NextEra blamed the decision on $1.25 million in updates they’d need to provide to the grid--something he feels they were willing to do.
But he said a bigger piece of the decision is declining state tax incentives for solar--the reason 40-50 projects have been proposed statewide.
“They’re eating up the incentives,” he said. “There are too many ponies at the trough...It’s like a land rush.
And it’s time to start playing hardball.”
Mr. Airey said it’s time to start charging companies an application fee, refundable if their project goes forward, suggesting $30,000 per megawatt.
For a project like the jail’s, that would mean $150,000.
“That would separate the chaff from the wheat,” Mr. Airey said, pointing out that solar companies have no trouble paying application fees to every other agency involved in the process.
“They promise you the world and end up eating up all of your time and energy. It was damn near a done deal. I don’t like to work for free.”