New York power

Generates renewable electricity from sunlight, supporting New York communities and producing enough electricity for about 180 homes for a year.*

Air quality & health in Westchester County

Westchester County has a population of 990,817. Across five conditions the American Lung Association tracks — childhood asthma, adult asthma, COPD, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease — it reports a combined 205,615 cases in the county.

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

Federal monitoring recorded 215 days of good air quality and 53 moderate days in the county over the most recent year, with 5 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 this one, in Elmsford, ranks #488 of 567 by the electricity it produced in 2024. It began operating in 2023 and is made up of 2 generators with a combined capacity of 2.1 MW (megawatts, a measure of the most power it can send out at one moment). That’s a modest size for a solar plant.

Over the year, it produced 1.8 gigawatt-hours (a unit of electricity; one gigawatt-hour is a million kilowatt-hours), roughly the amount used by about 180 homes. It uses solar photovoltaic technology, meaning panels that turn sunlight directly into electricity without burning anything. The power flows to Con Edison’s local grid.

Environmental impact

Produces electricity without burning fuel, which avoids roughly 680 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year compared with producing the same electricity from the national mix of power sources — about the same as not burning about 700,000 pounds of coal.*

Nearby places worth exploring

Elmsford sits in the Hudson Valley’s Westchester County, close to the river towns of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow. White Plains and Yonkers are the nearby urban centers. Rockefeller State Park Preserve is a well-known spot for walking, and Playland amusement park in Rye is another county favorite.

Local school district

Pocantico Hills 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.