Gov. David Paterson and LIPA officials on Friday announced the results of an RFP issued last April. BP Solar will provide 36.9 megawatts of solar energy from facilities that the company will build at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Additionally, enXco will supply 13.1 megawatts of solar energy from facilities constructed and operated on municipal, school and private properties in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

LIPA will start negotiations with both companies on power purchase agreements, which normally run for 20 years. A LIPA spokesman tells GlobeSt.com that financial terms of the PPAs will be available once the agreements are reached. In the meantime, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority is providing LIPA with $15 million toward the project. NYSERDA will also work with LIPA to identify other possible sources of funding; according to published reports, LIPA is seeking to get some funds from the Obama administration's $787-billion stimulus package.

In a release, Francis Murray, NYSERDA's president and CEO, says, "Solar technology will help meet Long Island's growing demand for electricity, while reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil. This investment is a critical component of Gov. Paterson's '45 by 15' initiative: meeting 45% of the State's electricity requirements through a combination of energy efficiency and renewable sources by the year 2015." LIPA president Kevin Law says in a release that the project will "diversify Long Island's energy portfolio, strengthen the local economy, transform the solar photovoltaic marketplace and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels."