Brookhaven residents, firefighters oppose battery storage near homes, schools

As Brookhaven Town prepares to review applications for up to eight large battery storage plants next year, residents, firefighters and lawmakers at a rally in Holbrook last week opposed their placement near schools and homes.

Battery storage projects, most planned for acres of property from Setauket to Holtsville, are part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s statewide plan to replace older fossil-fuel burning peak-power plants and store green energy from wind and solar farms. Some at the rally noted the mandates are under siege from the Trump administration’s opposition to wind and solar energy. His "big, beautiful bill," however, left a longer runway for battery storage projects before federal subsidies run out, through 2033.

Brookhaven Town has been among Long Island’s most welcoming of green energy, with a community benefits package valued at more than $130 million to accommodate the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind project’s nearly complete 17-mile cable line. The batteries would be able to store the energy from the array, already under construction in the waters off New England, including on windy winter nights when use is lower, and sell it back to the grid during the day when prices increase.

Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico, a Republican, in an interview prior to the Holbrook meeting (which he didn’t attend), said the town’s pending reviews of the battery plants will be rigorous. Residents have criticized Brookhaven’s failure to enact a moratorium to suspend battery projects for up to a year at a time. Most Long Island towns have moratoriums in place.

Panico said residents should not interpret Brookhaven’s decision not to issue a moratorium as "blind or blanket support for these applications. We are going to deal with the issue in a very truthful and transparent manner. We are not going to kick the can down the road." Brookhaven already has approved a 1.9-megawatt battery on town property earlier this year. It’s unclear if it is in operation. Developer Agilitas Energy didn’t respond to inquiries.

Speakers from across Brookhaven and Long Island took issue chiefly with placing the battery plants near homes, schools, businesses and oil/gas facilities, saying past fires at battery plants across the nation and in the state illustrate they are not safe.

Most of the opposition at the Holbrook Fire Department meeting was aimed at a 110-megawatt facility planned for a vacant property on Morris Avenue and the Long Island Expressway South Service Road, where some clearing on the 6.6-acre site has already begun.

Developer Savion in an email noted its Holtsville Energy Storage plant "received approval by the Brookhaven Planning Board in 2023 and is expected to be constructed next year."

The plant, Savion said, "will dispatch energy to the grid during peak demand hours or during emergency outages and will be able to power approximately 18,300 homes." Asked about community opposition, the company said, "The project team continues to welcome feedback from the community and address questions about energy storage projects," referring to its website at holtsvilleenergystorage.com. 

Savion previously said the plant could be operational by next year's end. 

Residents who live near it say they will oppose it at Brookhaven Town board meetings.

"So-called green energy cannot come at the expense of our community’s safety," said Fran Lunati, who has led opposition to the plant. She noted its proximity to homes, schools, a hotel and the Long Island Expressway, which could hobble any potential evacuation, and an oil-tank farm that holds 44 million gallons of fuel oil.

She said the plants belong in industrially zoned areas far from homes and businesses, "with proper containment and distance, not next to our homes, our schools and not in the heart of our family community. We want progress, but not at any expense of our lives."

Lawmakers who spoke in opposition to the plants included state Assemb. Doug Smith (R-Holbrook). State climate mandates are "completely unrealistic," said Smith, who co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that would require minimum setbacks for battery plants, among other things. "We need to be able to say that [battery plants] can’t be sited in this way."

Ken Lovett, a spokesman for Hochul, noted in an email that with "potential energy shortages as soon as next year, it's imperative that we take advantage of every opportunity to add power to our grid while ensuring we do it safety, efficiently, and affordably." 

He noted "stringent" new battery storage fire-safety codes that go into effect in January, and added, "While other states are rapidly investing in storage to stabilize their grids and lower costs, doing nothing risks leaving New York's economy behind and forcing New Yorkers to pay."

It's not just residents who are concerned about having big batteries in their midst. 

Rob Scavo, vice president of the Sachem Central School District Board, which sued the state over the Holtsville plant, said despite a settlement of that suit, he has lingering worries.

"We’re still very concerned with what’s being proposed for this project near our schools," Scavo said. He noted the district spent a "considerable amount of taxpayer money to fight this because we do believe that it is a hazard to our children, the safety and welfare of our children and our residents."

Firefighters also weighed in against the battery plants, though Holtsville Fire Department officials did not speak.

Hauppauge Fire District Commissioner Scott Munro said he’d spoken with an East Hampton fire official who responded to a 2023 fire at a smaller 5-megawatt battery plant in that town. "The risks were so significant that evacuations were necessary and the Long Island Rail Road was temporarily shut down," Munro said. The Hauppauge Fire District is opposing a separate LIPA-contracted 79-megawatt battery plant in Hauppauge.

Battery plant fires are "notoriously impossible to extinguish and can release toxic chemicals," he said.

The Hauppauge battery project was awarded as part of a LIPA request for proposals. In a statement, LIPA said it "supports the development of battery energy storage as a key part of a clean and reliable electric grid." With new state fire safety codes, LIPA said it believes "these facilities can be built and operated safely."

Proponents say modern designs have sharply limited battery storage fires in recent years, and that container configurations such as those planned for Long Island projects would greatly limit the impact of any potential fire. They say batteries are needed to stabilize the grid.

But John Caputo, a 38-year fireman and commissioner from the Farmingville Fire District, called the idea of battery storage plants in neighborhoods "absolutely disgusting to me."

"For a facility this size and what they’re proposing to put inside of it? It will burn for weeks. We can’t extinguish it," he said of the proposed Holtsville plant. "As a fireman I know we can’t extinguish it. So what’s going to happen to everybody here? You’re going to be evacuated. You’re not going to be able to go back to your home."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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