New York power

Generates renewable electricity from sunlight, supporting New York communities and producing enough electricity for about 250 homes for a year.*

Air quality & health in Rockland County

Rockland County has a population of 340,807. Across five conditions the American Lung Association tracks — childhood asthma, adult asthma, COPD, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease — it reports a combined 64,981 cases in the county.

The county received a grade of C for ozone pollution. No particle pollution grade is available.

Federal monitoring recorded 226 days of good air quality and 41 moderate days in the county over the most recent year, with 6 days rated unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Long-term exposure to air pollution has been linked to certain health conditions, particularly for children and older adults. Where electricity comes from affects how much combustion pollution is produced on the grid.

These figures describe the county as a whole and are not specific to this facility. Sources: American Lung Association – State of the Air (New York); U.S. EPA Air Quality Index.

The story behind this New York renewable energy facility

New York has 567 solar plants in this category, and the Clarkstown Landfill Solar Facility in West Nyack ranks #423 of 567 by the electricity it produced in 2024. It began operating in 2014 and uses solar photovoltaic technology, which means panels that turn sunlight directly into electricity.

Its capacity is 2.0 MW, a megawatt being a measure of how much power a plant can deliver at once. Over the year it produced 2.5 gigawatt-hours, a gigawatt-hour being a way of counting electricity over time, which is about 250 homes’ worth of electricity. The plant is owned by Clarkstown Solar LLC and connects to the Orange & Rockland system.

Environmental impact

Produces electricity without burning fuel, which avoids roughly 960 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year compared with producing the same electricity from the national mix of power sources — about the same as the carbon absorbed by about 990 acres of forest in a year.*

Nearby places worth exploring

West Nyack sits in Rockland County, close to the river village of Nyack and the Palisades along the Hudson. Farther north, Bear Mountain and Harriman state parks spread across the county, offering a green backdrop for day trips.

Local school district

Clarkstown Central School District

Common questions

* Homes-powered and emissions comparisons are annual estimates based on national averages from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. “Homes powered” describes a quantity of electricity, not direct service to specific households. How we calculate this.