Madison County considers rezoning for battery energy storage buildings
A company wanting to build a battery storage facility in Madison County is asking for zoning changes at two locations. As IPR’s Thomas Ouellette reports, the county spent hours talking about the safety of such projects.
Audio Transcript
Battery storage facilities hold surplus energy from a local power grid in large lithium batteries until it’s needed in times of peak power use. These kinds of facilities do not generate any power on their own.
Madison County Surveyor Ken Kocinski spoke at length about long-term risks of these facilities, including lithium fires that burn hotter and longer.
“If it burns. I talked to the fire gentleman. They used a word, and it’s their word, not my word. Big as Texas. ‘let it burn.’ Let it burn.” said Kocinski. “I understand let it burn, but what happens if it keeps burning? What happens when it starts going into the ground? What happens at that point?”
Nat Drucker with Jupiter Power, which wants to build the new project, says safety is a top concern. He says energy storage facility incidents have gone down substantially worldwide.
“The county has the benefit of the hundreds of full-scale projects already in operation, the lessons learned from the past decade of deployment,” he said. “This is no longer a new technology. It is now well understood and mainstream.”
He adds that no Jupiter Power facility has had any incidents in more than five years, and that safety codes are updated routinely.
Drucker says the two Battery Energy Storage System sites would differ from each other. The first one, titled Liberty 1, would stand on a leased parcel of 40 acres. However, the total footprint of the facility would only use about 10 acres.
The second site, Liberty 2, would be much bigger, with a project footprint of 19 acres and a total leased parcel of 100 acres.
Jupiter Power says, if approved, Liberty 1 could start construction as soon as mid-2027 and finish in about a year. Liberty 2 has a construction timeline that wouldn’t start until late 2029.
Drucker says the facilities would generate a significant amount of local tax revenue that would directly benefit local governments and schools.
After hours of deliberation, Jupiter Power requested time to respond to issues raised by residents at another meeting at a later date.
If given a favorable recommendation from the planning commission, the project will still need approval from the county commissioners and Board of Zoning Appeals.
Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer. Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu.
