U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin returned to Long Island for a press conference that took place at the Hauppauge Fire Department on August 18. He met with Long Islanders to address concerns they have regarding Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).
The state has been working to expedite approvals of installations of these systems in densely populated areas, especially in New York City and its suburbs, the EPA said. BESS is designed to bolster grid reliability by providing steady power flow, despite fluctuations from renewable energy and other sources. However, lithium battery fires at various installations across the country have raised legitimate safety concerns from communities nationwide, especially in metropolitan areas.
In New York, 6,000 storage projects have been interconnected to the state’s electric grid since 2019, creating about 440 megawatts of storage capacity, with an additional 1.3 gigawatts under contract. New York’s current goal is to reach six gigawatts by 2030…