Fires could lead to bans on batteries, which are crucial for renewable energy

Editor’s note: Minutes after this story was published, a 30-megawatt SDG&E battery storage facility on Enterprise Street in Escondido caught fire. The city of Escondido issued a mandatory evacuation order for surrounding businesses in the area and the local fire department was dispatched to the scene. In a statement, SDG&E spokesman Anthony Wagner said the fire started in one of the 24 battery containers on site. No injuries were reported. The company will conduct a “thorough investigation of the event to determine the cause of the incident,” Wagner wrote.

After several fires at renewable energy battery storage sites in San Diego, more and more politicians in the county want to suspend the construction of new sites.

But that would undermine the county’s soon-to-be-binding commitment to switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2045 under a new climate action plan. Unless the county invests heavily in nuclear or geothermal power, energy sources that don’t produce planet-warming greenhouse gases, batteries are key to keeping the lights and air conditioning on after the sun goes down.

The county Board of Supervisors will decide Sept. 11 whether to ban battery storage construction until stricter fire codes are in place. Such a moratorium, pushed by Republican Supervisor Jim Desmond, could mean no new battery projects for at least two more years while county planners work out standards. It also makes it harder for the county to transition away from fossil fuels, since batteries store energy from solar and wind at night when it is most in demand.

The upcoming vote also puts Democratic County Councilwoman Terra Lawson-Remer in the spotlight as she must contend with voters in her district who fear fire but also expect her to push the energy transition — all ahead of her re-election bid in November. Lawson-Remer, the vice chair of San Diego Community Power, a public power company created to implement the county’s renewable energy goals, has not yet said clearly what she wants to do.

“We are breaking new ground in building these battery storage facilities and must proceed in a way that protects our communities while meeting our climate goals. I look forward to hearing county staff make their recommendations,” she said in a statement to Voice on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Escondido City Council passed a resolution late last month saying battery storage projects are risky and don’t add economic value to the communities where they take place. Although the resolution is written to cover all battery storage projects in general, it coincides with an upcoming decision by the county on whether to approve a proposed and now highly controversial battery storage project called Seguro Energy Storage, developed by AES. It has the potential to power 240,000 homes, but the timing of its development couldn’t have been worse.

Two major battery projects recently caught fire elsewhere in the region: one earlier this year at Gateway Energy Storage in Otay Mesa and another in September 2023 at the Valley Center Energy Storage Facility operated by Terra-Gen. These chemical fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish and usually cannot be put out using traditional firefighting methods. That sparked fear and opposition in Escondido, since the county has no power to prevent the Seguro project, which is being built just outside city limits on county land.

Among those voting for the resolution was Escondido City Councilor Christian Garcia, who sits on the board of the Clean Energy Alliance, a public renewable energy company that serves North County and would otherwise support the spread of battery storage.

“I’m not against battery storage facilities. This is specifically about this one,” Garcia told the Voice. He said he believes the project’s location, near a small cluster of ranch homes, could impact home insurance rates due to the potential fire hazard and that the land could be used for a business that would provide greater economic value to the community.

Tim Wolf, spokesman for AES and developer of Seguro, disagreed. The company says the project would generate $5.8 million in local property tax revenue each year, and more than half of that would go to Escondido schools. Another $140,000 would go to Palomar Health and $370,000 to the San Marcos Fire Department.

Escondido’s resolution has little bearing on whether Seguro can move forward. That’s up to the county council, which could choose to move forward with any battery projects currently in development, even if the council decides to ban new projects from being built for now. Still, AES is concerned that if they build their project now, they’ll eventually run afoul of the county’s new guidelines.

“We want to meet development standards and meet the wishes of the communities. We are in a really difficult situation where we want to be good partners,” said Corinne Lytle Bonine, director of permitting at AES.

There is another option. Battery developers can choose to bypass all opposition and local regulations and have their project approved by the state through the California Energy Commission. Only one renewable energy project has made progress along this path, the Fountain Wind project in Shasta County. Lytle Bonine said this path can be more arduous in terms of the amount of analysis the companies have to produce and run through the state’s experts.

“We want to get the community’s approval,” she said.

AES’s desired site is an old horse ranch just outside Escondido. A small community, wineries and a handful of businesses involved in animal care surround the site. It’s a good location, the company says, because it’s near a large electrical substation, near which the batteries need to be located to connect to the grid.

San Diego Gas and Electric, an investor-owned utility, is operating another battery storage project right next to the substation in an industrial area of ​​the city. But it’s not SDG&E that’s on the municipality’s radar, it’s AES.

To satisfy the community, AES significantly modified its proposal. The size of the battery project was reduced by 20 percent to make room for larger distances between the project and the nearest residential building. The company also agreed to bury power lines connecting the lithium-ion battery chemistry blocks to the power grid underground.

Dozens in the community still want Seguro dead. A Facebook group called Stop the Seguro Battery Energy Storage System in Escondido provides its 350 members with news of lithium battery fires and other communities opposing battery projects across the country.

Joe Rowley, a former Sempra executive who has built gas and renewable energy projects across North America, opposes the Seguro project because it is too close to homes. Large battery projects like Seguro should be built 300 meters from existing homes.

“Batteries are not going away. They are needed. But what is missing here is the recognition that this is a very different issue and that it needs to be dealt with specifically,” Rowley said.

Lytle Bonine, permitting director at AES, said a 1,000-foot distance from residential homes would make building energy storage projects anywhere in the county very difficult, if not impossible.

“Imposing a restriction on a use such as battery storage in residential areas, which is also an important component of residential development, is overly burdensome, illogical and contrary to the intent of battery storage to bring electricity generation closer to where it is most needed during peak times,” she said.

The public utilities that San Diego created to meet its goal of 100 percent renewable energy don’t want to go back.

“A moratorium would be completely counterintuitive not only for San Diego Community Power, but for San Diego County itself,” said Jen Lebron, a spokesperson for San Diego Community Power. “It makes it nearly impossible for us to meet our local procurement goals (for renewable energy).”

San Diego Community Power and Clean Energy Alliance bill electricity customers in communities that sign up with the respective companies for the energy they use and use that money to buy and build new renewable energy sources. Lebron said a moratorium would have a “chilling effect” on energy companies looking to build in San Diego County.

“If we lose those development dollars, we lose clean energy, jobs and tremendous tax revenues,” Lebron said.

Greg Wade, CEO of the Clean Energy Alliance, said if the county stops accepting applications for battery storage, it would hinder the development of newer technologies that are not as risky as lithium-ion technologies.

“We simply cannot hope to achieve our local, regional and state goals of a 100 percent renewable energy future without battery storage,” Wade wrote in an email.