"Green" Street Light to be Installed Downtown

Riverhead will be going green in a small way after the Town Board accepted the donation of a self-sustaining "green" street light at their meeting Tuesday afternoon. The street light will be installed near the community garden as early as next week, according to a town official.

The "Eco-Pole" is an LED light that uses a small solar panel and a spiral wind turbine on the top of the pole to generate enough electricity to sustain itself, said Councilman George Gabrielsen.

Gabrielsen had , the company that builds the LED lights, about bringing a test street light to Riverhead. The company agreed to donate the first light, the first Eco-Pole on Long Island, as a test to prove its effectiveness, Gabrielsen said.

The resolution to accept the donation didn't pass without discussion however, as Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, the liaison to the town Energy Commission, said the committee didn't think the light would produce enough electricity to pump back into the grid. But Gabrielsen said the light would be separate from the town's electric grid.

"It's not for the grid," Gabrielsen said. "It just energy and electricity to sustain itself."

He added that representatives from a solar power company will return next Thursday to pitch a proposal to put solar panels on the town's capped landfill.

The panels would provide between 10 and 11 megawatts to the town, enough to power the town's facilities, like the sewer district and street lights. The town would lease the land to the company, who would then profit by selling the energy they produced at the landfill.

Gabrielsen said the new solar power system would save the town an estimated $500,000 on their electric bill, a savings of over 20 percent. However, he was unhappy that the proposal process has moved slowly so far.

"[The solar company] actually already given the town, a week ago, their proposal," he said. "They said we didn't even respond to it." He said the town has been "overwhelmed" with other projects that have been a higher priority for town officials.

"Some times these people just don't get it. Like [this] isn't important?" Gabrielsen said. "They're throwing stuff at us and we're tripping over ourselves not to take it."

The solar panel proposal had widespread support from the Town Board when it was originally pitched, though town officials said they needed to check the finances of the proposal before moving forward.