Long Island to Outfit Parking Garages with Solar Panels

Suffolk County, a bucolic district on the eastern part of Long Island to which sun worshipers flock in the summer months, is the setting for a proposed $125 million project that will install photovoltaic systems on carports at seven public parking facilities. Once completed, the Long Island Power Authority estimates that the project will contribute 32-megawatts of clean energy to its electrical grid, potentially powering 4,500 homes.

While the solar panels will not power all the homes in the county, it is nonetheless "very significant," according to Scott Sklar, president of the Stella Group, which specializes in new-energy consulting. Sklar asserts that solar power now is best compared with cellphones in the 1970s - a new technology that is still taking off. Sklar contends that "half of the new power generated in this country is renewable," a promising statistic.

The project's backers hope that it will spur further implementation of solar power systems on the famous island. With its state government strongly committed to solar power technology, it may just happen.