Brookhaven residents cite safety, property values in opposing battery facilities

Brookhaven Town board members got an earful Tuesday night from angry residents who face the prospect of utility-scale battery storage facilities near their homes in Setauket and Patchogue.

In public comments before a regularly scheduled board meeting, more than a dozen residents expressed concern and occasional outrage. They said the facilities raise the potential for prolonged toxic fires and reduced property values and complained about their proximity to schools and that Brookhaven failed to inform them of the plans as they progressed.

Savion Energy, the Shell Group company developing two of the facilities, wasn’t at the meeting, but in an emailed statement, project director Thom Rainwater said, "We look forward to continuing to engage with both the local community and town regarding these proposed projects." 

The company's proposed East Setauket Energy Storage facility would be 373 megawatts, potentially the largest such facility in the state, while the Setauket Energy Storage project is proposed at 65 megawatts. 

Brookhaven is one of the few Long Island towns that has not only declined to put a moratorium on new battery storage facilities, but embraced them as part of the green-energy revolution. The batteries can store power from intermittent energy sources, such as offshore wind farms, that Brookhaven also has embraced.

But residents who spoke against the projects, and several dozen more in the audience who cheered them from the public gallery, said that while they supported green energy, they believe lithium-ion batteries shouldn’t be placed anywhere near residential areas given well-publicized fires across the state, including one in East Hampton last year. Lithium-ion batteries can experience fires and burn at extremely hot temperatures for days.

Brookhaven earlier this year rejected a proposal for a battery farm in Mount Sinai, but several others are progressing to the permitting stage.

Brookhaven Town has approved a 1.9-megawatt battery storage unit on a town facility on North Ocean Avenue in Patchogue, which residents noted is less than half a mile from an elementary school, backs onto residential properties and is across the street from a church. Some said the town has never informed them of a plan to put a battery facility there until Newsday reported on it last month.

Patchogue resident George Bouton IV presented board members with a petition of some 90 signatures urging the town to find a different, "more suitable location. This battery storage facility does NOT belong in a residential community."

"I feel blindsided by this facility," said Calianne Schmidt, of Patchogue, who said she had never received advance notice. "Pushing these battery storage sites leaves an acid taste in peoples' mouths."

Even more residents spoke in opposition to two much larger proposed battery storage facilities proposed for Setauket, one on Sheep Pasture Road and a second on Parsonage Road at Old Town Road. Brookhaven and Islip residents are already protesting a planned 110-megawatt facility planned for Holtsville just off the Long Island Expressway by Island 16 movie theater. New York State has approved the Holtsville facility. 

Billy Kerwick, of Setauket, told board members the "main reason I moved to Setauket was safety," but said the battery is "taking that away from us."

"It’s in the wrong place," he said, adding he’s a football field away from one being proposed on Parsonage. "This is a safety issue."

Ira Costell, president of the Port Jefferson Station-Terryville Civic Association, called on the town board to do a "comprehensive evaluation" of battery storage sites across the region so that residents and officials can agree on "where best to do this."

Brookhaven Town supervisor Dan Panico assured residents that nothing relating to the two proposed Setauket batteries has yet been approved, and that the projects would be scrutinized. "There is no pending application before this town board. There isn’t even an inkling of scheduling a public hearing ... This is an idea," he said.

But the Patchogue battery project, which is under the size that would require special state approval, is moving forward, with work expected to start in weeks, Newsday has reported. As for that unit, Panico said, "That’s a very, very, very small battery storage unit."

Councilman Jonathan Kornreich said the siting of Setauket project site was "problematic."

"I am deeply concerned about the technology that’s being proposed for this spot," he said, suggesting that the technology is untested. "I am very skeptical about the ability to install a site like this safely in a location so close to residences."

Suffolk Leg. Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), who did not attend the meeting, said he has not taken a position on the battery storage facilities proposed for his district, although he said the fact that both are proposed for high-elevation locations was "concerning."

Nevertheless, Englebright said, the battery systems are "something we’re going to have to find a way to accommodate," given green-energy mandates and the need to store power. "There’s a need we must meet," he said. "It’s not whether, but where and how."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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