Fire Panic: Blazes May Lead to Bans on Batteries Key to Renewable Energy Commitments

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By MacKenzie Elmer, Voice of San Diego. 

Excerpt: After a couple of fires at renewable energy battery storage sites in San Diego, a growing number of leaders in the county want to suspend the building of new ones.  But that would undermine the county’s soon-to-be and legally binding commitment to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2045 via a new Climate Action Plan. ...batteries are key to keeping the lights and A/C on when the sun goes down. The County Board of Supervisors will decide on Sept. 11 whether to ban building battery storage until stricter fire safety restrictions are in place. Such a moratorium ...makes it harder for the county to transition away from fossil fuels because batteries store the sun and wind’s energy at night when it’s in high demand. ...Two large battery projects caught fire recently elsewhere in the region: One at Gateway Energy Storage in Otay Mesa earlier this year, and another in September of 2023 at the Valley Center Energy Storage Facility operated by Terra-Gen. These ...are notoriously difficult to put out and typically can’t be doused by conventional firefighting methods. ...Joe Rowley, a former Sempra executive who built gas-fired and renewable projects across North America, says he’s against the Seguro project because it’s too close to homes and says large battery projects like Seguro should be placed 1,000 feet away from existing residences.  “Batteries are not going away. ...But what’s missing here is any kind of recognition in zoning regulations that these are a whole different animal and need to be addressed specifically,” Rowley said.... 

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