Deal for Solar Panels on Town Landfill Falls Through

A  on the Riverhead landfill fell apart Thursday afternoon after the Town Board decided that while they support the idea, they would have to put out a request for proposals (RFP) before finalizing any deals.

The town, specifically Councilman George Gabrielsen, had been in talks with Long Island Green Energy, a developer of green energy sites on Long Island, to install a series of solar panels on the town's capped landfill.

The panels would have provided between 10 and 11 megawatts to the town, enough to power the town's facilities such as the sewer district and street lights. The town would have leased the land to the company, which would then profit by selling the energy they produced at the landfill, Gabrielsen said, saving the town an estimated $500,000 on their electric bill, a savings of over 20 percent.

Long Island Green Energy attended the Town Board's work session meeting on Thursday with a proposal to begin construction. However, town officials said the town was required to post an RFP to do their "due diligence" if they wanted to lease the property to the developers.

"It's very difficult for a town not to do an RFP," Walter said. "It's very unprofessional."

However, LIGE officials said they needed a decision by the end of the month so they could qualify for grant funding, since the Long Island Power Authority offered few incentives for green energy. Walter said that was "impossible."

Robert Cassandro, an attorney for LIGE, said the company had already invested money into doing preliminary studies on the site. Town Board members said LIGE could still use the studies for the RFP.

"Guys, I love the idea," Walter said. "But my opinion ... is that in order to do our due diligence that we have to do, we have to go to RFP. We can't rush into this."

After the meeting, officials for LIGE said they were walking away from the proposal because of the time and money it would take to do further studies for an RFP, according to a story in the Riverhead News-Review.

Gabrielsen, who had worked with LIGE on the proposal, said he had thought the town could get around an RFP by leasing the property, but that proved to be incorrect. He said in an interview last week that the approval process was taking too long.

"[LIGE] is throwing stuff at us and we're tripping over ourselves not to take it," he said.