1. Monterey County, California – The Moss Landing battery fire is now the big renewables PR crisis we should all be watching, even with Trump 2.0 going on.
- Whereas before a battery fire news cycle might last a week, this story’s now in thermal runaway, as The New York Times has taken to profiling the sick and injured. Affected residents have now sued Vistra Energy, operator of the Moss Landing battery storage facility, for damages. Famed environmentalist Erin Brockovich is now involved, working in tandem with victims’ attorneys. Nearby San Luis Obispo and Orange counties have now issued temporary moratoriums on new battery storage.
- It’s worth considering how much of this is unique to Moss Landing. The residents’ legal comaplint takes aim at the use of nickel manganese cobalt batteries (NCM) for storage, as opposed to lithium iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistries. NCM is an historically popular battery chemistry used in consumer electronics and electric vehicles … but not as often with storage.
- “Because they are safer, most energy storage projects around the world have been transitioning to LFP batteries,” the complaint states. “NMC batteries undergo thermal runaway at a lower temperature and release more energy from decomposition, while LFP batteries can withstand higher temperatures than NCM batteries before beginning the thermal runaway process.”
- The lawsuit also claims the fire suppression system at Moss Landing was faulty and contrasts its behavior with a fire at a “neighboring Tesla project, which used safer and less volatile LFP batteries,” and which it says was “quickly extinguished.”
2. Portage County, Wisconsin – Doral Renewables’ Vista Sands solar project is facing a prolonged legal fight with the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, a state outdoor recreation and wildlife advocacy group. At the center of the conflict is a bird that’s long bedeviled developers of all stripes: the greater prairie chicken.
- The state Public Service Commission approved Vista Sands on January 16. On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation said it would appeal the decision “based on the threat” the project could “endanger and possibly extirpate” nearby populations of the greater prairie chicken. The WWF’s press release quotes multiple former Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officials and claims the group “secured a generous private donor that is willing to match donations 1 to 1 to help with our legal expenses.”
3. Santa Fe County, New Mexico – Energy developer AES got a green light for its Rancho Viejo solar-plus-battery project, prevailing for now over an organized opposition campaign.
- The opposition focused on fire risks from the battery storage and had successfully pushed a county official directly overseeing the project’s permits to recommend against approvals. But after days of hearings, AES appears to have come out on top, winning a 6 to 1 vote from the Santa Fe County Planning Commission. According to NPR affiliate KSFR, there will be a 30-day window for appeals.
Here’s what else I’m watching…
In New York, a NineDot BESS project is the latest scene of the Staten Island battery backlash, while Yonkers extended its battery moratorium.
In Indiana, one county — Pulaski — has moved forward with plans to ban BESS, even though, according to media reports, no projects are proposed there.
In Ohio, tempers remain hot over Open Road Renewables’ Grange Solar project, which will face an Ohio Power Siting Board public comment meeting next month.
In North Carolina, a NextEra utility-scale solar project was approved by county regulators, but …
In Oklahoma, a different NextEra utility-scale solar project was rejected by county regulators.
In Wyoming, one county board of commissioners apparently gave EG Haystack Solar, the developer behind a proposed large-scale solar farm, an absolute grilling over a project it wound up rejecting. Read the full account here.
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