Seaboard Solar is developing two community solar projects in upstate New York, and Northern Sun Energy is building them. The sites are in Waterford and Boonville. Together they total 23 megawatts (direct current), according to trade coverage from late August 2026. Construction has begun. Neither report gives an opening date or says who can subscribe.
What was announced
Seaboard Solar is the developer. Northern Sun Energy, a solar and storage engineering and construction firm, is the contractor, and it has built projects for Seaboard since 2017, as Seaboard president Shawn Brazo said in the announcement. EnergyTech reports that once these sites are finished, the partners’ active community solar footprint in New York will pass 56 MW. That is a company-reported total: the existing 33.2 MW plus the new 23 MW. The projects have grant support from NYSERDA through the NY-Sun program, which pays performance-based incentives to developers. Neither report says which NY-Sun incentives these two sites receive.
| Project | Size | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Waterford and Boonville (Seaboard Solar) | 23 MW combined | Under construction |
| Coventry 1 and 2 | 15.22 MW | Operating |
| East Greenbush Phase 1 | 13.01 MW | Operating |
| Troy | 5 MW | Operating |
Source for the table: EnergyTech, Aug 28, 2026.
Works well, and be careful
| Works well | Be careful |
|---|---|
| A long builder-developer relationship: Northern Sun has built for Seaboard since 2017. | The 23 MW is direct-current capacity across two projects, and the reports don’t split it by site. |
| NYSERDA grant support through NY-Sun. | No source gives a subscriber count, a discount, or a subscription date for Waterford or Boonville. |
| Site problems are being worked through: the Waterford bridge has a 20-ton weight limit, and Boonville has some of the highest snow-load requirements in the country. | It isn’t known whether these projects use NYSERDA’s Inclusive Community Solar Adder. |
| The partners’ existing New York projects are already operating. | The adder page reviewed describes Round 2, which launched in October 2023, so program terms may have changed since. |
EnergyTech describes the construction hurdles in some detail. The Waterford site spans two parcels and can be reached only by that bridge, so crews had to rethink how equipment gets in. Northern Sun vice president Chris Balogh said the bridge limit forced a new plan for hauling equipment. Boonville’s snow loads affect how the racking must be built. The verdict: this is real construction by experienced partners, but nothing yet tells a household how to sign up or what it would save.
Why It Matters to You
In community solar, one developer builds a shared array and many households subscribe to a share, receiving bill credits rather than owning panels. You don’t need a roof, so renters can take part. For these two projects, though, subscription terms haven’t been announced and construction is still under way, so nobody can sign up yet. NYSERDA’s Inclusive Community Solar Adder is one state tool aimed at widening access: it adds an incentive for projects that reserve at least 40% of capacity for eligible subscribers, mainly low- and moderate-income households and affordable housing, and those projects must guarantee a bill discount of at least 10%, per NYSERDA’s program page. Whether these sites use it is not known.
Quick answers
Can I subscribe to the Waterford or Boonville projects yet? The coverage doesn’t say. The projects are under construction, and no subscription details have been published in the reports found.
How much will subscribers save? Unknown for these sites. Savings depend on the subscription contract and your utility’s credit rate.
What is NY-Sun? It is NYSERDA’s solar incentive program. EnergyTech says the program was expanded in 2022 to target 10 gigawatts of solar by 2030.
Sources
- EnergyTech: Seaboard Solar Expands Northern Sun Partnership for Additional 23-MW Community Solar Installations in Upstate New York (Aug 28, 2026)
- Solar Now (repost of Solar Power World): Northern Sun Energy building 23-MW New York community solar portfolio (Aug 26, 2026)
- NYSERDA: Inclusive Community Solar Adder (accessed Oct 13, 2026)