Solar carport coming to county center

The county center in Riverside will soon be generating electricity.

The site is one of seven in Suffolk County that will host new solar generating facilities to be built by Eastern Long Island Solar Project, LLC on parking lots owned by the county or the LIRR, under a lease agreement approved this week by the County Legislature.

The solar panel arrays will be installed on a new carport to be constructed in the county center parking lot. The carport structure “will be similar to carports seen at shopping malls, apartment buildings and other locations with semi-covered parking,” according to a report prepared by LIPA. The solar modules will be incorporated into the carport roof.  The carport, including the solar modules, will  have a maximum height do 16.5 feet, and sufficient clearance for most vehicles, including light-duty trucks and campers. Its construction will not result in any permanent loss of parking spaces in the lot, according to the report.

Collectively the seven solar installations will produce up to 17 megawatts of power, which will be purchased by LIPA. The other sites are the H. Lee Dennison complex parking lot in Hauppauge, the Cohalan Court Complex in Central Islip, the North County Complex in Smithtown and the LIRR station parking lots in Ronkonkoma, Deer Park and Brentwood.

Most of the work is expected to be completed by the spring of 2011.

Eastern Long Island Solar Project, owned by enXco, a California-based renewable energy company, will pay the county quarterly lease payments based upon the amount of energy that will be generated at each site. The amount of energy generated will be determined by the final size of the solar module constructed, which won’t be known until all permits are approved. The lease term is 21 years.