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 Oneida County

Oneida County has a population of 227,555. Across five conditions the American Lung Association tracks — childhood asthma, adult asthma, COPD, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease — it reports a combined 47,467 cases in the county.

Federal monitoring recorded 211 days of good air quality and 50 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 the Oneida County- DPW array in Oriskany ranks #486 of 567 by 2024 electricity produced. It’s a solar photovoltaic system, meaning panels that turn sunlight directly into electricity, with a capacity of 1.5 MW (a megawatt is a measure of how much power a plant can deliver at once, about enough for a small neighborhood). It began operating in 2017 and is owned by Tesla Inc.

In 2024 it produced 1.8 gigawatt-hours, which is a way of counting a large amount of electricity over time, and that’s about 180 homes’ worth. Because the sun doesn’t shine around the clock, plants like this typically run well below their full capacity, and this one operated at a 14% capacity factor. Its power flows into the National Grid system.

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 taking about 150 cars off the road for a year.*

Nearby places worth exploring

Oriskany sits in the Mohawk Valley, a short drive from Utica and Rome. Rome is home to Fort Stanwix National Monument and has a stretch of the Erie Canal running through the area. The eastern shore of Oneida Lake also touches the county.

Local school district

Oriskany 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.