Solar panels for Suffolk's Dennison building

Construction has begun on the installation of solar panels in the parking lot of the H. Lee Dennison Suffolk County office building in Hauppauge.

Known as the solar carport project because the panels are mounted on shelters in the building’s north and south parking lots, the facility is expected to generate two megawatts of electricity for the Long Island Power Authority grid.

The Dennison building is the second county location to install solar carports, joining a county-owned Long Island Rail Road station in Brentwood. California-based contractor enXco Solar Development agreed to pay the county about $8.5 million over 20 years to lease the Hauppauge and Brentwood locations and three others that have yet to be built: the North County complex on Veterans Memorial Highway in Smithtown, the Cohalan court complex in Central Islip and the Riverhead county complex.

“Suffolk County was proud to be the first municipality to lease its property for a clean, renewable-energy public-private partnership of this scale,” County Executive Steve Levy said in a statement.

County officials say the carports will create 200 construction jobs and, when completed, generate 17 megawatts of power, enough for nearly 1,800 homes.