Major Poway battery storage project gets final approval – San Diego Union-Tribune

The Poway City Council on Tuesday night finalized approval to build a 300-megawatt, 1,200-megawatt-hour energy storage facility at a business and industrial park, despite concerns from some residents about potential fires.

The project, called Nighthawk, being developed by Arizona-based renewable energy company Arevon, is set to break ground soon and be operational in the second quarter of 2025.

Arevon officials predict the facility will comprise 329 battery enclosures and, once fully built, generate enough electricity to power up to 300,000 homes for four hours. The site, which is zoned light industrial, is close to Kirkham Way and Paine Street.

The City Council initially unanimously approved the Nighthawk project on Aug. 20, but as is customary at City Council meetings, the matter was put on a second reading as part of the approvals calendar Tuesday evening.

A series of fires at electrical storage facilities in the San Diego area last year prompted more than a dozen Poway residents to appeal to the City Council to reverse the decision.

The latest fire occurred Sept. 5 in Escondido at a 30-megawatt, 120-megawatt-hour San Diego Gas & Electric facility, prompting the temporary evacuation of about 500 nearby businesses. Escondido crews found no abnormal readings indicating toxic fumes, and air quality monitoring did not indicate any health hazards.

“Please reconsider, everybody. This is wrong,” one homeowner in nearby Stonebridge Estates said during Tuesday night’s council meeting. “I’m all for clean air and all that, but this (battery project) is a disaster waiting to happen.”

Arevon officials say that unlike the lithium-ion batteries involved in recent San Diego-area fires, the Nighthawk project will use Tesla Megapack 2XL batteries, which use lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry, which they say is “orders of magnitude” more stable and less likely to ignite.

Although the facility is located in a very high fire risk safety zone, a Poway city staff report said the Nighthawk facility will be equipped with a protection system that will automatically shut down, preventing the fire from spreading to other battery modules.

The system will be monitored remotely 24/7 and fire brigade training will be conducted prior to the project launch.

Among other precautions, Arevon will build a 12-foot masonry wall around the entire site and is pledging to “fully reimburse the city for all costs” incurred in responding to the Nighthawk fire.

“When I look at what the actual risk is, I really don’t think it actually creates a greater risk,” said city councilor Peter De Hoff. “I think it actually reduces the risk of forest fires a little bit.”

The council approved construction of the Nighthawk Resort through a calendar approval process by a 5-0 vote.

Poway Mayor Steve Vaus cited the fact that California policymakers and lawmakers see building energy storage as critical to achieving the state’s clean energy goals.

“Even if we said no tonight, our decision could be appealed to Sacramento,” Vaus said. “And I can say with a great deal of certainty that they would approve this project. Because we’ve pushed the boundaries, I think this will set a new bar for what these facilities should look like.”

The developers agreed to pay a lump sum of $2 million to the City Community Benefit Fund and at least $10,000 annually over the life of the project to Poway civic organizations. They also agreed to provide at least $3.5 million in sales and use tax revenue to the city from construction of the project and at least $6.5 million in property tax revenue to the city over the first 20 years of the project’s operation.

“The company is pleased” with the vote, Arevona’s Nighthawk Energy Storage Project told the Union-Tribune in an email, “and looks forward to continuing to develop the project to provide California with safe and reliable renewable energy.”

Energy storage has become increasingly important as more renewable energy sources enter California’s power grid.

The storage systems collect solar energy generated during the day and discharge the electricity later, especially from 4 to 9 p.m., when California’s grid is most heavily loaded. The batteries can help reduce the risk of rolling blackouts and replace natural gas-fired “peaking plants” used during those critical hours when customers turn on their air conditioners.

California has set a goal to have 100 percent of its electricity come from carbon-free sources by 2045, if not sooner.

In addition to the SDG&E battery fire in Escondido earlier this month, there have been two other fires in the San Diego area over the past year.

On May 15, firefighters and county hazmat crews responded to a fire in Otay Mesa at the 250-megawatt Gateway Energy Storage facility, operated by LS Power and its subsidiary Rev Renewables. Fire officials said the batteries experienced a “thermal run” — a condition in which excessive heat causes a chemical reaction that spreads to other batteries — and it took nearly 17 days for the last unit to leave the facility.

In September 2023, a fire broke out at the Valley Center Energy Storage Facility, owned by renewable energy company Terra-Gen.

In response to those fires, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors last week passed an ordinance aimed at tightening safety regulations for all future battery storage facilities in areas of the county that do not have municipal status.

The regulations to be adopted, which will include the establishment of buffer zones, will be developed based on a technical study that the county fire department is expected to complete soon in collaboration with a battery energy storage consultant.

The technical report is expected to be completed next month, and then county firefighters will work with seven other independent fire districts from unincorporated areas of San Diego County to develop a single, unified safety standard for battery projects.

Originally published: September 18, 2024 at 2:48 PM