An increasing number of, huge arrays of lithium-ion batteries are being hooked as much as electrical grids across the U.S. to retailer energy that may be discharged in instances of excessive demand.
However as extra vitality storage is added, residents in some locations are pushing again because of fears that the techniques will go up in flames, as an enormous facility in California did earlier this 12 months.
Proponents keep that state-of-the-art battery vitality storage techniques are secure, however extra localities are enacting moratoriums.
“We’re not guinea pigs for anybody … we are not going to experiment, we’re not going to take risk,” stated Michael McGinty, the mayor of Island Park, New York, which handed a moratorium in July after a storage system was proposed close to the village line.
At the least a number of dozen localities round the USA have moved to briefly block growth of huge battery techniques in recent times.
Lengthy Island, the place the ability grid may get a lift within the subsequent few years as offshore wind farms come on-line, has been a hotbed of activism, even drawing consideration just lately from the Trump administration. Opponents there obtained a lift in August when Environmental Safety Company Administrator Lee Zeldin visited New York to complain that the state was dashing approvals of websites in an effort to meet “delusional” inexperienced energy targets — a declare state officers deny.
Battery development spurt
Battery vitality storage techniques that suck up low cost energy in periods of low demand, then discharge it at a revenue in periods of excessive demand, are thought-about vital with the rise of intermittent vitality sources corresponding to wind and photo voltaic.
Recognized by the acronym BESS, the techniques could make grids extra dependable and have been credited with decreasing blackouts. A big battery system may encompass rows of transport containers in a fenced lot, with the containers holding a whole lot of 1000’s of cells.
China and the USA lead the world in quickly including battery storage vitality techniques. Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Australia, Netherlands, Chile, Canada and the U.Ok. have commissioned or began building on massive tasks since 2024, too, in line with analysis from BloombergNEF.
Within the U.S., California and Texas have been leaders in battery storage. However different states are transferring rapidly, usually with privately developed techniques. Whereas the Trump administration has been unsupportive and even hostile to renewable vitality, key tax credit for vitality storage tasks have been maintained within the just lately accepted federal finances for certified tasks that start building within the subsequent eight years.
Builders added 4,908 megawatts of battery storage capability within the second quarter of 2025, with Arizona, California and Texas accounting for about three-quarters of that new capability, in line with a report from American Clear Energy Affiliation, an trade group. That’s sufficient to energy almost 1.7 million households.
New York has an formidable aim so as to add 6,000 megawatts of vitality storage by 2030, half of it large-scale techniques.
Lithium-ion hearth worries
Opposition to the storage techniques often focuses on the opportunity of thermal runaway, a series response of uncontrolled heating that may result in hearth or an explosion. Opponents level to previous fires and ask: What if that occurs in my neighborhood?
A battery storage system in Moss Touchdown, California caught hearth in January, sending plumes of poisonous smoke into the environment and forcing the evacuation of about 1,500 individuals.
Consultants within the subject say battery techniques have grow to be safer over time. Ofodike Ezekoye, a combustion skilled and professor of mechanical engineering at The College of Texas at Austin, notes that failures are comparatively rare, but in addition that no engineered system is 100% foolproof.
“This is a relatively immature technology that is maturing quickly, so I think that there are a lot of really thoughtful researchers and other stakeholders who are trying to improve the overall safety of these systems,” Ezekoye stated.
Battery storage proponents say a facility like Moss Touchdown, the place batteries have been saved indoors, wouldn’t be allowed in New York, which has adopted hearth codes that require modular enclosure design with required minimal spacing to maintain fires from spreading.
Blocking battery techniques
Individuals who stay close to proposed websites aren’t at all times assured.
In Washington state, town of Maple Valley accepted a six-month moratorium in July as a method “to protect us until we know more,” stated metropolis supervisor Laura Philpot.
Voters in Halstead, Kansas, which has a moratorium, can be requested this Election Day whether or not they wish to prohibit bigger battery storage techniques inside town limits, in line with Mayor Dennis Travis. He hopes town can in the future host a safely designed storage system, and stated native opponents wrongly fixate on the California hearth.
The variety of localities passing moratoriums started rising in 2023 and 2024, mirroring developments in battery storage deployment, with a notable cluster in New York, in line with a presentation final 12 months by the Pacific Northwest Nationwide Laboratory.
Winnie Sokolowski is amongst space residents towards a proposed 250-megawatt lithium-ion storage system within the City of Ulster, New York, contending it’s too shut to varsities and houses.
“They’re banking on nothing happening, but I don’t think you can place it where they’re proposing and assume nothing’s going to happen,” Sokolowski stated. “It’s just too risky if it does.”
The developer, Terra-Gen, stated the design will preserve a hearth from spreading and that the system “poses no credible, scientific-based threat to neighbors, the public or the environment.”
New York State Power Analysis and Growth Authority President Doreen Harris stated she’s assured the state has the correct security guidelines in place, and that scaling up using battery storage techniques will “strengthen and modernize our grid.”
She famous there additionally have been native issues within the early levels of siting photo voltaic farms, which have since confirmed their advantages.
