BACKYARD NY / PROJECT REGISTRY
REC #004 · STATUS: ∅ NEVER PROPOSED
∅Never proposed

Claverack BESS Moratorium

Town of Claverack · Columbia County · Hudson Valley

A Columbia County town that fielded informal developer inquiries but no formal application has kept battery storage under a moratorium while it writes regulations.

IMG · GOOGLE PLACES Town of Claverack · Columbia County
Sector
ENERGY-STORAGE
Location
TOWN OF CLAVERACK · COLUMBIA COUNTY · HUDSON VALLEY
Process
MORATORIUM BANA local pause (moratorium) on new projects while rules are studied — or an outright ban. · LOCAL ZONINGLocal zoning — town/village land-use rules and special-use permits. Standalone battery storage is sited locally under home rule.
Source confidence
MEDIUMmedium — the moratorium's existence, the fire-safety rationale, and the town attorney's quote come from a fetched local-news article (The Daily Gazette / HudsonValley360). The exact current law (Local Law No. 2 of 2025) text, scope, and dates could not be machine-fetched (the town-site PDFs redirect and 404). A tracker labels the scope 'utility-scale,' but neighboring Columbia towns' near-identical template laws cover all BESS — Claverack's scope is unconfirmed.

Background

Town of Claverack · Columbia County · Energy storage · Status: never-proposed (precautionary moratorium)

Inquiries, not an application

No battery storage project has formally been proposed in Claverack; local reporting noted only that two unnamed companies had inquired. The town has kept a moratorium in place — a three-month measure passed in December 2025, which the board planned to extend — while it writes regulations, following an earlier 12-month moratorium in 2024. Town Attorney Robert Fitzsimmons said the town wants to "come up with good regulations for them before they are built." (The Daily Gazette)

Chronology

For it

  • No BESS developer or local proponent on record — local reporting noted only that two unnamed companies had inquired about building storage, with no application filed [source]

Against it

  • Town of Claverack Town Board — passed a battery-storage moratorium (a three-month measure in December 2025, with plans to extend) while it drafts regulations [source]
  • Robert Fitzsimmons, Town Attorney — cited fire concerns and said the town wants to 'come up with good regulations for them before they are built' [source]
    come up with good regulations for them before they are built

Context — not for or against

Analysis

Claverack is the same precautionary posture as Livingston and Stockport — regulate before anyone builds — but it is the least documented of the three: the load-bearing facts here come from a single local-news article, and the current law's exact text, scope, and dates still need to be pulled from the town record. That gap is itself the reason the case carries only medium confidence and an open verification task, rather than being treated as settled.

Sources

// every field traceable to a primary source · outcome classified per documented record · BACKYARD NY