New York power

Generates renewable electricity from sunlight, supporting New York communities and producing enough electricity for about 400 homes for a year.*

Air quality & health in Chautauqua County

Chautauqua County has a population of 124,891. Across five conditions the American Lung Association tracks — childhood asthma, adult asthma, COPD, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease — it reports a combined 26,694 cases in the county.

The county received a grade of D for ozone pollution. For particle pollution — the fine soot and dust that can be breathed deep into the lungs — it received a grade of B.

Federal monitoring recorded 233 days of good air quality and 29 moderate days in the county over the most recent year, with 1 day 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 Portland SP, in Brocton, ranks #263 of them by 2024 electricity produced. It is a solar photovoltaic plant, meaning panels that turn sunlight directly into electricity, with a capacity of 2.5 MW (a megawatt is a measure of the most power a plant can deliver at one moment). It began operating in 2023 and is owned by Solar Planet Power.

In 2024 it produced 4.0 gigawatt-hours of electricity (a gigawatt-hour is a large unit of energy, equal to a million kilowatt-hours), enough to power about 400 homes. Solar panels make power only while the sun is up, so the plant’s output rises and falls with the daylight and the seasons.

Environmental impact

Produces electricity without burning fuel, which avoids roughly 1,500 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 1,600,000 pounds of coal.*

Nearby places worth exploring

Brocton sits in Chautauqua County, close to the Lake Erie shoreline and the wine country that runs along the county’s northern edge. A short drive south brings you to Chautauqua Lake and the Chautauqua Institution, with the city of Jamestown nearby.

Local school district

Brocton 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.