New York power

Generates renewable electricity from sunlight, supporting New York communities and producing enough electricity for about 300 homes for a year.*

Air quality & health in Jefferson County

Jefferson County has a population of 114,787. Across five conditions the American Lung Association tracks — childhood asthma, adult asthma, COPD, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease — it reports a combined 21,824 cases in the county.

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

Federal monitoring recorded 255 days of good air quality and 16 moderate days in the county over the most recent year, with 0 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 Mereand CSG, on Old Rome Road in Watertown, ranks #362 of 567 by 2024 electricity produced. It’s a solar photovoltaic plant, meaning panels that turn sunlight directly into electricity, and it has been running since 2018 with a rated capacity of 2.0 MW (megawatts, the most power it can produce at a given moment).

Over the year it generated 3.0 gigawatt-hours of electricity (a gigawatt-hour is a billion watt-hours, a way of counting energy over time), roughly what about 300 homes use. Owned by Nautilus Solar Solutions, it sends power into National Grid’s local network, and it produces no emissions as it generates.

Environmental impact

Produces electricity without burning fuel, which avoids roughly 1,200 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 1,200 acres of forest in a year.*

Nearby places worth exploring

Watertown sits in the heart of the Thousand Islands region, where the resort villages of Clayton and Alexandria Bay line the St. Lawrence River. Sackets Harbor, a short drive away, sits on the shore of Lake Ontario.

Local school district

Sackets Harbor 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.