NYS announces awards for 8 battery storage plants statewide, 2 in Brookhaven

New York State on Wednesday announced awards for eight new battery-energy storage plants, including two in Brookhaven Town, where opposition has been coalescing for more than a year.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority announced the awards as part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to install about 6,000 megawatts of battery-energy storage around the state by 2030. All of the projects awarded this week propose using lithium-ion batteries and all are slated to be in operation by 2030, adhering to stricter new fire-code safety standards. NYSERDA also plans to announce more award winners by year's end.

The awards come just over a week after the state announced the results of toxic plume investigation in East Hampton that confirmed it was the result of a fire-suppression system used at a much smaller battery plant following a 30-hour thermal-runaway fire in 2023.

NYSERDA, in announcing the awards, said the latest projects "will provide public health benefits from reduced exposure to harmful pollutants" among other benefits. NYSERDA chief executive Doreen Harris and other officials were not available for interviews, a spokeswoman said.

The two Brookhaven projects, one on Morris Avenue in Holtsville and the other at 62 Weeks Ave. in Manorville, already have many of their needed permits, Newsday has reported. But the Town of Brookhaven in recent months has indicated a hesitancy to move forward with issuing final construction permits for plants given what Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico has said was a lack of support for batteries from Hochul's administration.

Brookhaven is one of the few Long Island towns that does not have a moratorium on batteries, and Islip Town last week approved a ban on so-called Tier 3 battery plants that would prevent the largest plants from being built, including a proposed 79-megawatt plant by Key Capture Energy, which is building the Manorville plant.

Panico wasn’t available for comment.

Fran Lunati, a Holbrook resident, said she and other opponents of the Holtsville battery plant which is less than a mile from their homes, will continue to fight it.

"Gov. [Kathy] Hochul shouldn’t have the ability to decide what’s happening in our town," Lunati said, vowing to "continue to fight with the people in my community for our drinking water and clean air." 

Opponents have been fighting the plant since the state Public Service Commission issued a needed certificate for the facility in 2023. The project is the subject of a lawsuit by developer, Savion Energy, which sued Suffolk County after Suffolk declined to grant a needed variance, citing the storage of over-the-limit toxic liquids at the site. Savion won the case in  state Supreme Court, but Suffolk has filed an appeal with the state Appellate Division. Savion spokeswoman Johnna Guinty declined comment.

William J. Miller, an energy expert at ClearView Consultants who has advised developers of the Holtsville project, said its location makes it ideal for the LIPA grid given a related interconnection point for Sunrise Wind, which is expected to provide power for the 110-megawatts of batteries.

"Not all battery storage projects are created equal," he said, but Holtsville "has exceptionally high location value and is connected directly to the same interconnection point as Sunrise Wind."

The Manorville storage project is even larger, at 150 megawatts on three parcels of just over 9 acres south of the Long Island Expressway. 

Chris Linsmayer, a spokesman for Key Capture Energy, said KCE officials weren’t available to discuss the project. 

In a statement via email, he wrote the project will "help Long Island meet growing energy demand, support grid reliability for the region, and help households and businesses save on energy costs." He declined to say what the project would cost or specifically how it would reduce customer bills.

"KCE has met with and will continue to meet with local fire departments and officials," Linsmayer wrote in the email, noting the project is to be located more than 1.5 miles from the Eastport-South Manor Junior-Senior High School. "A comprehensive emergency response plan will be finalized in partnership with the fire department before the facility begins operating, a requirement of the updated New York fire code."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.