Albany County Industrial Agency was the lead agency on the Champlain Hudson Power Express, a $4.5 billion project that involves 355 miles of underground cables bringing hydroelectricity from Quebec to New York City. About 60% of the cables will be underwater and the remaining 100 miles will run along railroad rights-of-way in Washington, Saratoga, Schenectady, Albany, and Greene Counties. In Albany County, the project will span about 24 miles through the towns of Coeymans, Bethlehem, Guilderland and New Scotland, and the villages of Ravena and Voorhesville.
Champlain Hudson Power Express was granted a 30-year $163.7 million payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement. This figure is about 22.3% less than BlackRock, the company behind the project, would normally pay in taxes in that amount of time. The Albany County IDA will receive an administrative fee of about $2.28 million, a portion of which will be distributed to other local IDAs based on how much of the project runs through their respective counties.