NYS reviewing 11 battery storage projects in Suffolk among dozens statewide

Large lithium-ion battery storage plants proposed for Suffolk County comprise the bulk of dozens of proposed projects under review by New York State for development before the end of the decade, including several in Long Island towns that have battery moratoriums in effect.

In all, developers have proposed 11 projects in Suffolk for the state’s bulk-energy storage procurement solicitation initiated in July, with final awards due to be announced by June.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which administers green-energy contracts, said the solicitation would allow the owners of successful projects to be paid for the energy they provide to the grid "only once the project is built, operational, and available for charging and discharging."

A NYSERDA website listing the proposed projects notes that those deemed "eligible" for the program "does not guarantee that an energy storage project will be built."

The 11 projects, extending from Huntington to Calverton, are a response to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s call for 6,000 megawatts of battery storage plants to help meet ambitious green-energy goals established in 2019. The battery review is continuing even as Hochul is eyeing unspecified rollbacks for the state climate law, which set aggressive targets for green energy over the next two decades.

The batteries are considered an essential part of the green-energy plan because they can help stabilize the electric grid and store energy from solar and wind farms and conventional power plants during hours when power is least needed and potentially cheapest. They are also considered important tools to help replace a large fleet of smaller fossil-fuel power plants called peakers, which are chiefly used during high-summer power demand times.

On its bulk-energy storage website, NYSERDA lists a total of 46 proposed plants statewide eligible for consideration for the procurement. The projects are proposed for numerous upstate counties and two in New York City, and include projects that use non-lithium alternatives to store power, including compressed carbon dioxide and zinc-halide batteries.

But the largest concentration of projects — just under 1,000 megawatts — is in Suffolk County, where all listed candidates are lithium-ion batteries that are many times larger than three existing batteries in use in Suffolk now. (National Grid Ventures and NextEra operate two existing five-megawatt batteries contracted to LIPA, in East Hampton and Montauk.) None of the projects are in Nassau County.

NYSERDA notes that local governments and the state "still retain the legal authority to review, approve, and permit projects," which "must also pass New York’s rigorous Peer Review and Quality Assurance processes prior to operation to ensure safety and fire code compliance."

The proposed projects in Suffolk include some municipalities that have passed battery moratoriums. Most of the projects are in Brookhaven, which has not instituted a moratorium and has a special zone for such projects.

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico was vacationing and unavailable for comment, but in January, expressed skepticism about fast-track review for battery projects in the town, particularly in the face of community opposition. "We may evaluate the land-use applications when the time is right, but right now there needs to be a lot more work done by the applicants and the state of New York," Panico told Newsday at the time.

NYSERDA declined Newsday’s request for interviews about the solicitation. Spokeswoman Deanna Cohen declined to provide addresses for proposed projects, which in many cases are not listed on a NYSERDA map of proposals. Cohen referred such questions to developers. Key Capture Energy, one of the proposers, said it is "not able to comment on the active" procurement, referring questions to NYSERDA.

In an email, Cohen wrote, "Awarded projects will be announced once all provisionally awarded contracts have been executed. Updates will be posted on our website."

Newsday has previously reported on some of the projects, including a 110-megawatt facility on Morris Avenue in Holtsville where preliminary clearing work began last year. The facility is the subject of a lawsuit by developer Savion against Suffolk County over a variance. A Brookhaven spokesman didn’t return a message seeking comment.

New York State in January enacted strict new safety codes for the battery storage plants after heightened community concerns following fires at some facilities over the past several years. In December, fire broke out at one in upstate Warwick a month before the new state fire codes went into effect. Proponents say the facilities are safe but opponents say they should never be located near schools and homes.

The proposed Suffolk projects include:

• A 50.4-megawatt project proposed by Caithness LI Energy Storage on 12 acres of the company’s existing power-plant site in Yaphank, north of Zorn Boulevard. The project in the Town of Brookhaven would include storage containers enclosing battery racks, and a new substation, among other equipment.
• A 54.5-megawatt project called East Setauket Energy Storage on a 19.24-acre parcel at 366 Sheep Pasture Rd., Port Jefferson. The Savion Energy project would consist of "prefabricated containers housing lithium-ion batteries, cooling systems control instrumentation, fire protection systems, and a dedicated project substation." It's to be located within Brookhaven’s L Industrial 1 Zoning District.
• A 60-megawatt project called the Edwards Calverton Battery by Rhynland Energy to be built in the Town of Riverhead. Rhynland’s application doesn’t list a specific address for the project. Riverhead Town officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
• A 79.9-megawatt Holtsville Brookhaven Battery Storage project, also by Rhynland, with no specific address provided. The company said it has already held public meetings "where public information was presented and questions could be answered on the record." Developers expect the project to be operational within a year, according to their filings.
• A 110-megawatt Holtsville Energy Storage project planned for Morris Avenue in Holtsville. The project, by Savion Energy, has begun preliminary construction and expects to complete work by the end of 2028. The company said it has implemented a "robust stakeholder outreach and engagement effort over several years of working with the Town of Brookhaven and the broader community."
• A 100-megawatt storage facility called Horseblock Energy Storage System in Medford. The plant, by AES, is to be located on 10.73 acres and is designed "using metal storage containers that will house racks of lithium-ion battery modules equipped with insulation and robust safety monitoring and management systems." AES "anticipates receiving site plan approval in Q1 2026," according to the filing.
• A 60-megawatt facility by Key Capture Energy on an 11.19-acre parcel at an unspecified address in East Northport.
• A 150-megawatt facility on 9.59 acres in Manorville. The address isn’t listed, but the filing by KCE says three separate parcels "contain generally flat topography and do not contain any critical environmental concerns," as the site is "currently being used to store construction materials and machinery (concrete, trailers, forklifts, etc.)." 
• A 135-megawatt facility called Marathon Power in Huntington near a LIPA substation in Greenlawn. The address is not specified. The project’s local permits "remain firmly on schedule for approval" by the end of this year, owner Recurrent Energy said in its filing. The site "lies within an industrial zone and is eligible for permitting-by-right under the Town of Huntington’s recently adopted BESS ordinance." Huntington Town spokeswoman Christine Geed, in an email, acknowledged the town has two battery-plant applications before it, even as it is considering "another 6-month moratorium to study among other things, health risks associated with firefighting a fire involving a BESS facility."
• A 140-megawatt project called Ramadi BESS at an unspecified address in Brookhaven Town, where it will connect to the LIPA grid at a Yaphank-William Floyd substation, according to its filing. The project, to be owned by Calpine Mid-Atlantic Development, will use "state-of-the-art BESS technology to maximize electrical output of the facility" for a minimum of 20 years.
• A 50-megawatt storage facility called Sandlot Energy by Recurrent Energy at an unspecified address in Smithtown. The filing says Sandlot will be at a "former sand mine parcel currently zoned industrial" in Smithtown. The filing noted Smithtown’s "current BESS moratorium is scheduled to expire in February 2026” and "all local permits remain firmly on schedule for approval by Q2 2027, supporting commercial operation in Q3 2029."

Nicole Garguilo, spokeswoman for Smithtown, confirmed town officials had a "preliminary meeting" with the developers in November about the plant, which she said is to be located on Old Northport Road.

"The discussion was positive but also cautious as the use has its issues and they are not well received by the public as evident with the Hauppauge proposal in the Town of Islip," she wrote in an email. 

In an interview, she added, "Our concern is really what the Hauppauge Fire District has echoed" in opposing the plants. "Until there is a safe way to put these fires out, for humans and environment, we’ll likely continue the moratorium."

Garguilo noted the town does not have a pending application, nor a needed "ordinance to permit one" for the Sandlot facility.

"The consensus of the meeting was that they [the developers] need to speak with the local fire districts and gain their support as they have the most at stake," she wrote. "In the meantime, [Smithtown] has requested from the Suffolk County Planning Commission that the moratorium be extended."

The proposed NYSERDA projects are on a separate track from two others selected in 2024 by the Long Island Power Authority, in Shoreham and Hauppauge.

They are a 50-megawatt Shoreham project expected to be operational in 2028 and a 79-megawatt Hauppauge project that "is under an existing moratorium in the town of Islip," with a production date not yet determined. Negotiations for a potential West Babylon battery are "ongoing" though final contract terms "have not yet been agreed to," LIPA said.

The NYSERDA projects under review by the state would involve interconnection to the LIPA grid, but LIPA "doesn’t have ‘approval rights’ relative to NYSERDA’s identified projects," LIPA spokeswoman Michelle Livingston said in an email. LIPA would have a role as the interconnecting transmission owner, where agreements would be needed between LIPA and the project owner. Livingston noted discussions for interconnection agreements "have started with several project owners." 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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