The county still needs to come up with guidelines and will consider input from community members living near proposed sites, industry experts and other stakeholders.
Cal Fire crews battled a battery fire inside one of the buildings at the Gateway Energy Storage Facility in Otay Mesa for 17 days in May. On the heels of two fires in recent months at separate battery energy storage facilities, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday directed staff to establish standards for future projects in unincorporated areas of the county.
Going into Wednesday’s meeting, Desmond called for regulations that, “at minimum,” make sure battery energy storage systems avoid being located in residential areas or near schools, day care centers, senior living facilities and hospitals. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has directed staff to establish standards for approving future battery energy storage projects in the unincorporated areas of the county. said she was concerned that “placing a blanket moratorium” could lead to “a big problem to meeting our local energy needs if we couldn’t build any battery sites at all” until standards are put into place.
Firefighters and a county hazardous materials crew responded quickly and evacuation orders and warnings were put into effect in the immediate vicinity out of concerns about the potential release of toxic gases. The batteries kept reigniting and it took nearly 17 days before the last unit left the facility, which is owned and operated by LS Power and its subsidiary, Rev Renewables.
Whatever standards the county puts into place, they will not apply to some battery projects already under consideration within the board’s jurisdiction — including theAn aerial rendering of the proposed Seguro Energy Storage Project that Fortune 500 company AES wans to build in Eden Valley, between San Marcos and Escondido. The project would be built on a 22.5-acre plot of land and store enough batteries to power an estimated 240,000 homes for four hours.
But opponents of the project at Wednesday’s meeting said they hope whatever standards are adopted can be applied if Seguro goes before the full Board of Supervisors.
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