Riverhead’s largest solar plant operated without town’s official OK for eight months

Riverhead’s largest solar facility was operating without a certificate of occupancy for almost eight months.

The Calverton Solar Energy Center is a 22.9 megawatt, 198-acre energy center on Edwards Avenue that provides electricity to over 4,000 households. The facility began supplying power to LIPA on Aug. 1, 2022, according to a spokesperson for National Grid Ventures, joint venture developer and operator of Calverton Solar with NextEra Energy Resources.

But a temporary certificate of occupancy  — which allows use and occupancy of a site prior to the issuance of a permanent C.O., while minor issues are resolved — was not issued by the town until March 27, according to a resolution the Town Board adopted yesterday. 

RIverhead Planner Greg Bergman in an interview Thursday acknowledged the date the temporary C.O. was issued and said the permanent C.O. is “imminent.” He said that the only issues holding up a final C.O. in March were some dead plants and a payment required by a community benefit agreement between the town and the developer.

“Calverton Solar was energized in 2022 and LIPA began distributing clean energy from the facility on Aug. 1, 2022,” National Grid Ventures Molly Gilson said in an email Friday. 

It is not clear whether town officials were aware the facility was energized and distributing electricity to LIPA’s Edwards Avenue substation from Aug. 1 through March 27 without a C.O. — or whether LIPA, which buys power from Calverton Solar under a 30-year, $190 million power purchase agreement — was aware the facility hadn’t obtained its C.O. yet.

A LIPA spokesperson referred RiverheadLOCAL’s inquiry to the developers. 

Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar did not return a phone call or respond to an email seeking comment for this article.

Both NextEra and National Grid did not address the issue directly and would only say they were transparent with the town and a final C.O. wasn’t needed for “initial energization.”

“We worked alongside the Town of Riverhead every step of the way with full transparency,” Gilson said.

The developers worked “transparently and diligently” with the town, according to NextEra spokesperson Bill Orlove. He said the “initial testing and commissioning of the Calverton Solar Energy Center occurred in Q3 2022.” They complied with all code requirements, he said. 

The Town Board approved a special permit for the facility on Dec. 1, 2020, when it also authorized the community benefit agreement. The Planning Board granted preliminary site plan approval on May 6, 2021 and final site plan approval on Aug. 19, 2021. The approvals required  building permits, fire marshal permits, an easement agreement to cross Edwards Avenue with an underground electric cable, and the issuance of a certificate of occupancy, as well as performance bonds and a decommissioning plan.

Occupancy and use of a premises without the required certificate of occupancy is a violation of Riverhead Town Code, a conviction for which is punishable by a penalty of $500 for each day the violation occurs. 

Aguiar, Council Member Bob Kern and Deputy Supervisor Devon Higgins attended an event on July 19 celebrating one year of operation for Calverton Solar Center at the solar facility. 

Aguiar spoke at that event, thanking NextEra and National Grid for “choosing Riverhead,” saying the “net result of this project is exceedingly positive.” 

Riverhead required a community benefit agreement with the developer as a condition of its approvals. The agreement was authorized by the Town Board in December 2020 and signed in May 2021. It required a total $1.5 million payment to the town, payable in two equal installments. The first half was to be paid within five business days after signing the community benefit agreement. The second half was to be paid within five business days after the issuance of a temporary C.O.

The $1.5 million paid pursuant to the community benefit agreement were to be allocated among six “funding categories,” according to the terms of the agreement: 

• promotion and enhancement of community health and welfare ($350,000); 
• promotion and protection of agriculture and open space ($250,000); 
• promotion and improvement of environment ($250,000);
• promotion and enhancement of police, fire and emergency medical response ($350,000); promotion and enhancement of education ($150,000);
• and promotion and advancement of employment ($150,000).

The May 2021 community benefit agreement was amended by a letter agreement between the town and the solar operator on May 3 of this year, according to the resolution passed by the Town Board yesterday. The resolution did not say how the letter agreement amended the original agreement and a copy of the letter agreement was not attached to the resolution or immediately available from the town.

The resolution adopted yesterday approved the May 3 letter agreement and approved the following allocations from the community benefit funds required by the community benefit agreement with the developers:

• $150,000 from the promotion and enhancement of community health and welfare category, as follows:  comprising $100,000 for the Stotzky Park walking trail, $36,500 for the Stotzky Park basketball court, and $13,500 for a swing set at Wading River beach;
• $67,000 from the “promotion and advancement of education, arts, community & historic heritage initiative” for painting the historic military aircraft on display at Grumman Memorial Park;
• $250,000 from the promotion and improvement of environment category to partially fund the construction of a bathroom at Veterans Memorial Park.

The resolution adopted yesterday refers to the Calverton Solar Center project throughout as “Solar 1” and states that it approves the expenditures from the “Solar 1 Community Benefit Agreement.” The Calverton Solar Center project has never been referred to as the “Solar 1” project, which was a shorthand designation for “Riverhead Solar 1,” a 20W solar facility in Calverton developed in 2019 by a different developer, sPower. The original community benefit agreement with the developers of the Calverton Solar Center did not refer to the project as “Solar 1.”  (sPower, now known as AES, subsequently obtained state approvals for “Riverhead Solar 2,” a 36-MW facility in Calverton that has yet to be constructed. A separate community benefit agreement for “Solar 2” has been under negotiation. Funding for the bathrooms at Veterans Park was originally going to be paid out of the Solar 2 community benefit agreement.)

The resolution also states in the same paragraph that the Town Board approves a contract with the vendor of the restroom facility. It does not provide any specifics about the contract.

Nextera/National Grid made the payment in two installments this year. Now that the second installment has been paid, the town will issue the final C.O. 

-Alek Lewis contributed reporting.

Editor’s note: This article has been amended to correct a misstatement regarding information about the terms of the contract with the company constructing the bathroom at Veterans Memorial Park. The resolution does state the total cost of the building: $538,474.