Trees uprooted at Brookhaven Lab for BP solar project

CONTRACTORS for energy giant BP this month began clearing land at Brookhaven National Labs to make way for the state's largest solar energy farm, a $300 million "green" project that has even some proponents wincing over the loss of an estimated 42,000 trees.

The sprawling solar array, which will provide up to 32 megawatts of energy to the Long Island Power Authority grid - enough for 4,500 homes - required removing trees with excavators and mobile saws from 153 acres of undeveloped land at the federal property in Yaphank. Most are native oak and pitch pines.

"I would have preferred they use less sensitive property that had already been cleared," said Dick Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society.

A deal struck between LIPA and the Pine Barrens Society obligated LIPA to invest up to $2 million to preserve other land in the pine barrens to compensate for the woodlands eliminated for the project. "In the end, it was a reasonable solution," said Amper, who is working with Brookhaven Town and LIPA to find acreage to buy and preserve.

Brookhaven Lab was chosen because it offered the land near a LIPA substation in exchange for a research and development grant to the lab, said Bob Gordon, director of business management for BNL. A separate solar array just for research will also be built.

Some grassroots environmentalists remain unhappy with the decision to plant 167,712 door-size solar panels over a total of 200 acres.

Twice this month, veteran environmental activist Peter Maniscalco ventured into the woods around BNL to honor the trees that are to be cleared.

"It seems to me they could have found a far better place to have this solar farm, where they wouldn't have to cut down these trees," said Maniscalco, who was among protesters who defeated the Shoreham nuclear plant 20 years ago and a proposed gas barge in Long Island Sound in 2007. "If they can't respect and have reverence for another life form, we will never resolve our environmental problems."

Tom Stockton, a noted naturalist and former science teacher who lives near the site, estimated 42,075 trees will be felled, based on an average of 275 trees an acre near the site.

But LIPA, BNL and the BP Solar Division say the environmental balance sheet adds up in the project's favor. Generating electricity from solar cells instead of hydrocarbon fuels will prevent the production of 30,950 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, while the carbon-dioxide-reducing capacity of the trees is just 842 metric tons a year. The energy required to build the facility amounts to two years of its output - 88,000 megawatt hours, they say.

BNL will protect 89 wooded acres on the site due to agreements reached with Amper, while LIPA will protect another 45 away from the site, the project's partners say. BP has also agreed to contribute $75,000 to an environmental restoration fund. The partners said construction was started in the fall "to reduce disturbance to birds."

LIPA, which initiated the project, will buy power from the solar farm when it is completed, which is scheduled for next fall. Officials declined to say how much LIPA will pay for the energy, calling the figure proprietary.

BNL and BP completed an environmental assessment that determined that construction of the array "does not constitute a federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment." As a result, a more rigorous environmental impact statement was not required, and never done.