PHOTOS: Construction of Solar Car Ports Begins at County Building

Suffolk County has started construction and installation of solar power car ports at the H. Lee Dennison building.

County officials closed down the south parking lot of the H. Lee Dennison building over the upcoming weeks as 6,700 solar modules capable of providing 2 MegaWatts of power are slated to be installed in both the south and north parking lots.

"The solar generating car ports will be used to sell solar power back to LIPA," said Mark Smith, a spokesman for County Executive Steve Levy.

The county building is one of seven sites across Suffolk County slated to receive the solar car ports. When the total project is finished, the solar panels will have the capacity to produce up to 17 MegaWatts of power, enough to power up to 1,800 homes.

“Suffolk County was proud to be the first municipality to lease its property for a clean, renewable energy public-private partnership of this scale,” Levy said in a statement. “This concept is now a reality, with work underway at the county-owned Brentwood railroad station and beginning now here in Hauppauge.”

Future site will include the North County Complex on Veterans Highway in Hauppauge, Cohalan Court Complex in Central Islip, the Deer Park LIRR station, Riverhead County Center, and the Ronkonkoma LIRR Station.

Suffolk County officials estimate the project will produce as much as $9 million in lease revenue over the next 20 years, with local school districts and towns seeing $1.2 million in revenue from the project.

Hauppauge Board of Education trustees said the school district expects to see approximately $15,000 to $17,000 in revenue.