SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - LIPA Approves Food Scraps-To-Energy Plant

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

 The recent approval by the trustees of Long Island Power Authority for a food scraps-to-energy plant to be built in Yaphank links back to an original purpose of LIPA—to develop safe, alternative means of power.

LIPA was created by the Long Island Power Act of 1985 primarily to prevent the Shoreham nuclear power plant from going into operation and to further instead safe energy technologies. In its three decades, LIPA has emphasized solar and wind power to generate electricity. The food scraps-to-energy OK marks a move to another form of safe energy.

The LIPA trustees voted unanimously on March 20 for an $84 million 20-year contract to buy energy from a facility to be built by American Organic Energy that would convert 180,000 tons of food scraps a year into bio-gas to fuel a six megawatt power plant as well as vehicles and equipment. 

Underlying this is the huge problem of food waste in the United States. Some 40 percent of food produced in the nation is wasted, studies have found.  One way to deal with this was featured on the Today show a day before LIPA acted, in a segment titled “Cooking With Trash.” It featured Cameron Macleish who has a YouTube channel with that name. He came with seemingly fresh food retrieved from a dumpster, and with his mother, Ellen, a chef. 

Dumpster-dumping for food is “like opening a treasure chest…There is so much good food thrown out on a daily basis,” he stated, his interviewers somewhat taken aback.

This is one way to reduce food waste. Another way is a movement today involving restaurants pledging to generate “zero waste” with a variety of recipes using produce that otherwise would end up in the trash. 

There are other strategies. Governor Andrew Cuomo has been seeking to require “organizations that produce large amounts of excess food a year to donate edible items to food banks and recycle the rest.” He heralded the new “groundbreaking…clean energy project.”

No matter how much the reduction in wasted food, there still would be inedible scraps. Charles Vigliotti, co-founder of American Organic Energy, said that “on Long Island, the notion that we would put virtually all our commercial food waste onto trucks and carry it to Ohio and North Carolina is just insane.”

The main safe alternative energy technologies—solar and wind—are an energy bonanza. With 38 solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of our house for 10 years, I still marvel at seeing the electric meter going backwards—the panels are harvesting more electricity than we are using. We saved much in installing them with a LIPA rebate. That rebate no longer exists, but over the decade the price of solar panels has halved and their output significantly increased. Houses and commercial and government buildings throughout Long Island should have solar panels on their roofs.

Coupled with this, we had an “energy audit” done of leaks and other issues and took simple steps to make our more than century-old saltbox house energy efficient. 

We also have two rooftop solar panels that produce hot water.

LIPA has been deeply involved in the major state initiative underway to place wind turbines well off our shores.

Yet in addition to the sun which on most days shines on us and the winds that blow mightily off our coasts, there are other available energy sources. Take wave and tidal power long advocated here by Sarah Meyland, a professor in the Department of Environmental Technology and Sustainability at New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury. As Dr. Meyland has stated: “One thing Long Island has that no one else in the state has is wave energy. We have it 24 hours a day. The sun doesn’t have to shine, the wind doesn’t have to blow. Tides rise and fall on a regular basis, day in and day out.” Countries especially in Scandinavia, have “deployed tide-generated plants that are completely submerged and generate a lot of electricity. It’s absolutely clean, and if we could support enough of these, we would solve a lot of our downstate energy problems.”

Indeed, next to Roosevelt Island in the East River, off Long Island’s west end, Verdant Power has had a demonstration project with six turbines spinning with the river’s motion. Verdant now seeks to install 30 turbines to generate electricity. 

There are opportunities to use tidal power to Long Island’s east—with Plum Gut off Orient Point ideal. Natural Currents Energy Services has been considering it.  We’ve been in Plum Gut in our sailboat when the tide is changing—and, wow, what power waits to be tapped! As for the waves hitting Long Island’s ocean beaches, the energy that can be gotten from them is also endless—and other nations are harnessing wave-power. 

Considering its founding mission, it’s a natural for LIPA to be a safe energy leader.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.