Gloversville City Hall.

The City of Gloversville is seeking to extend a moratorium on industrial solar and battery storage facilities.

The council imposed a six-month moratorium in April, which was set to expire in October. However, after a work session on Tuesday, the council unanimously voted to hold a public hearing and vote on extending the freeze Sept. 23.

Gloversville Mayor Vince DeSantis said he continues to have concerns about the safety of battery storage systems and the appropriateness of industrial-scale solar in the city.

“If they catch fire, it’s almost impossible, from what we understand, to put the fire out, and it makes these storage systems a danger to adjacent buildings,” DeSantis said.

“Industrial solar on that level, it really doesn’t belong in a city, because they take up acreage and in a city that acreage [should] be much more productive than just making electricity.”

The council isn’t looking to restrict residential solar systems.

“The individual solar community, neighborhood solar, putting solar panels on roofs, even, large-lot-size houses, that they could actually put solar panels on the ground if they wanted to” he said. “Industrial solar is a whole different thing.”

DeSantis said the council hasn’t been approached by any large-scale solar projects or companies.

“We’re feeling that we want to restrict these two uses in some way,” he said.

“In the meantime, we want to prevent these things from happening.”

The potential extension comes on the heels of the Town of Johnstown holding a public hearing on large-scale solar projects Monday. Johnstown’s proposed law would limit “Tier 5” solar projects — defined as those exceeding 25 megawatts — in addition to placing restrictions on where solar projects can be located.

The new moratorium would expire in March.

“By then, we’ll have enough information to be able to change the zoning ordinance, or zoning ordinances to be more appropriate,” DeSantis said.

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Nicosia has always had a passion for creating, which led him to earn a degree in fine arts from the University at Buffalo.

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