Teaming up for solar power in HV
Two important regional economic development agencies joined forces last week, with The Solar Energy Consortium meeting with the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation to begin formally collaborating on how their collective strengths can be joined with local economic development corporations to successfully complete creation of a solar energy development and manufacturing corridor in the Hudson Valley.
“Personally I have always found collaboration to work better than going it individually,” said John MacEnroe, president and CEO of the Dutchess County Development Corp. and a board member of the HVEDC, who led the meeting.
“The Solar Energy Consortium (TSEC) has strengths; HVEDC has strengths; and the local development corporations have strengths. If we’re all pulling together, we are more of a force to be reckoned with,” said MacEnroe.
He said this unity was particularly necessary for the Hudson Valley where there is no central city nor ultrafamous university that provides an identity for focusing economic development funding and strategy. So in the far flung Hudson Valley, he said, “Our best opportunity is to have a whole bunch of us yelling together.”
MacEnroe arranged a meeting between the two groups on June 30, along with economic development officials from Ulster, Orange and Sullivan counties and representatives from the offices of U.S. Reps. John Hall and Maurice Hinchey.
MacEnroe said in a manner typical of meetings where people with competing agendas are coming together for the first time to discussion possible collaborations, “It started a little chilly,” he said. “But we were all singing ‘Kumbaya’ by the end.”
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