Edgewise Energy

The Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency (SCIDA) supports many other businesses than your traditional industrial operations. SCIDA recently supported Long Island’s energy sector, more specifically Generate—a leader in diversified, sustainable infrastructure—in collaboration with Long-Island based, Edgewise Energy, to acquire property and install a 7.6-megawatt community distributed generation project.

Edgewise Energy was founded by veterans in New York’s clean energy sector as a way to develop innovative methods to help the State reach its aggressive clean energy goals. The technology being utilized for the project effectively converts fuels such as natural gas, hydrogen, or biogas, into electricity through an electrochemical process without combustion, cutting down on CO2, NOx and SOx emissions.

The project repurposed 15,298 square feet of surplus parking spaces at 575 Broadhollow Road in Melville to install state-of-the-art, energy-saving technology. The project represents a more than $56 million investment into the region’s clean energy resources and will result in more than $45 million in public benefits to County taxpayers.

With the $56 million investment being made for this project, 7,500 to 10,000 Long Island residents who elect to subscribe to the project will gain access to cheaper and cleaner electricity in terms of a fixed 10-percent reduction in their current rates. In addition, Edgewise Energy worked with the local non-profit, Community Development Corporation of Long Island, to ensure the opportunities for lower-cost energy are reaching the communities that would benefit the most from the savings generated by the technology.

This project provides a major windfall for residents in terms of increased tax revenue. The surplus of parking spaces that will be utilized for this project currently nets approximately $6,000 per year in property taxes. In the first year of the agreement with the IDA more than pay $240,000 in taxes will be collected—40 times the current rate. Over the course of the 25-year project term, it is expected that $45.5 million in public benefits are realized—nearly $7.7 million in tax revenue and nearly $38 million in utility savings to residents—in exchange for less than $3 million in sales tax exemptions.