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A 22 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) planned by Stella Energy Solutions near an elementary school has been denied a conditional use permit (CUP).
While some California communities are opposing applications for commercial-scale batteries in or near residential areas, the city of San Benito in South Texas has also rejected plans for a 9.9 MW/22 MWh facility 100 feet from an elementary school.
City commissioners voted unanimously to reject Stella Energy Solutions’ application, despite company spokesman Brian Yarbrough’s assertion that all battery fires around the world were due to a different chemistry than the lithium ferrophosphate (LFP) systems his company had proposed in San Benito.
“The lithium iron phosphate batteries that we use in our facilities have not had any accidents,” Yarbrough said at a San Benito Commission meeting on Sept. 3, 2024. “The explosions, the fires, the thermal runaways that we’ve seen have been with a totally different chemistry. It’s the one in Samsung tablets that they don’t allow on airplanes, and those little hoverboards. It’s a nickel-manganese-cobalt chemistry. It’s a South Korean product that’s responsible for all the fires.”
Fire protection
Yarbrough said all of Stellas battery storage projects met the National Fire Protection Agencys 855 standard for such facilities. Referring to a statement made at the meeting by the owner of a property near the proposed battery site that the batteries contained environmentally harmful materials, the Stella spokesman said the batteries emitted no pollutants during operation.
Yarbrough concluded: “We certainly don’t want a project that doesn’t excite the community, that doesn’t excite the city.”
Neighbors at the proposed battery site off Interstate 69 pointed to the dangers of thermal runaway and the release of toxic fumes during battery fires elsewhere in the United States and around the world. A former educator and former mayor of San Benito said other, more industrial sites were available for the battery.
Commissioner Deborah A. Morales said a local fire chief had told the San Benito planning and zoning committee meeting on the application that her ability to deal with a battery fire would be limited.
"If something were to happen, God forbid, an explosion, would we have the ability to do anything about it?" said the commissioner, who proposed the motion to deny Stellas request for the CUP to install the battery somewhere other than an industrial zone.
The commission heard that another applicant for a battery energy storage system had been granted permission for a site outside an industrial zone, in 2022, but had been ordered to reapply to the board within five years. It is understood that the applicant is now considering installing a battery in an industrial zone for which a CUP would not be required. |
