The Texas firm that owns the battery storage plant at Moss Touchdown that burned in a spectacular hearth in January, elevating questions nationwide concerning the security of the fast-growing renewable vitality expertise, has withdrawn plans to construct a similarly-sized battery storage plant within the adjoining county.
Vistra, based mostly in Dallas, has notified the California Vitality Fee that it’s dropping efforts to safe state permits to assemble a 600-megawatt battery storage plant in Morro Bay, a coastal city in San Luis Obispo County.
The proposed plant would have been one of many largest in america with 1000’s of lithium-ion batteries able to storing sufficient electrical energy for 450,000 properties. Vistra didn’t announce the choice to halt the undertaking publicly or notify metropolis leaders, regardless of having advocated for it over the previous 4 years.
The data turned public in current days when native media retailers in San Luis Obispo County confirmed with the vitality fee that the corporate had withdrawn the undertaking.
“The comprehensive review and investigation of the incident at our Moss Landing facility is ongoing,” mentioned Meranda Cohn, a Vistra spokeswoman, “which will inform current and future energy storage operations across our fleet.”
The corporate has not given a cause for halting the Morro Bay undertaking, which was being watched throughout the state by renewable vitality pursuits.
Residents of Morro Bay opposed it. Final yr they permitted a poll measure by a 60-40% margin to ban its development with future voter approval.
After the Moss Touchdown hearth on Jan. 16, which unfold 55,000 kilos of poisonous heavy metals on the encompassing space, in response to a San Jose State examine launched this week, and compelled the evacuation of 1,200 folks and closed Freeway 1 for 3 days, Morro Bay’s opposition stiffened.
Two weeks after the fireplace, the Morro Bay Metropolis Council voted 5-0 to impose a two-year moratorium on the development of battery vegetation within the city, a scenic fishing and tourism neighborhood of 10,000 residents recognized for Morro Rock, an enormous pure landmark on the fringe of its harbor.
“The Moss Landing fire had a huge impact,” mentioned Morro Bay Mayor Carla Wixom. “People were afraid. They were angry. It was like ‘oh my gosh — if that could happen to them, it could happen to us.’”
Just like the Moss Touchdown facility, Vistra additionally proposed constructing the Morro Bay plant on the location of a former Fifties-era PG&E energy plant on the oceanfront. The Morro Bay website is well-known for 3 towering 450-foot concrete smokestacks, which, just like the 2 500-foot tall former PG&E smoke stacks at Moss Touchdown in Monterey County, are the tallest constructions on the California coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Vistra introduced in April that it could pursue that route.
The 107-acre oceanfront website in Morro Bay “remains in our ownership and perhaps we will revisit plans for redevelopment sometime in the future,” Colbert added.
She didn’t cite a cause for the shift, citing solely “some challenges with the project.”
The reason for the Moss Touchdown hearth, which Vistra reported was a $400 million loss, stays beneath investigation.
California has seen an enormous improve within the development of battery storage vegetation in recent times, going from 17 in 2019 to 248 at this time. Many extra are deliberate throughout the Bay Space, within the Central Valley and Southern California.
The vegetation retailer electrical energy generated by giant photo voltaic and wind farms to launch again on the facility grid at night time when the solar isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing.
California lawmakers have set a objective of producing 100% of the state’s electrical energy from renewable and carbon-free sources by 2045.
Earlier this yr, Assemblywoman Daybreak Addis, D-San Luis Obispo, launched a invoice in Sacramento to ban development of recent battery storage vegetation close to properties, colleges, parks and hospitals. It died amid opposition from labor unions and the renewable vitality trade. Addis opposed the Morro Bay plant.
“There is understandable concern around safety,” Addis mentioned. “Vistra has told me they are focused on Moss Landing — getting the results of the investigation and finishing with the cleanup. I am pleased they are maintaining their focus on Moss Landing. The investigation and cleanup could take years.”
Vistra acquired the Moss Touchdown and Morro Bay websites in 2018 after merging with Dynegy, one other Texas vitality firm that had bought them. Each properties are priceless as a result of they’re related to excessive voltage energy traces that transfer electrical energy throughout California. Years in the past, they burned oil and pure gasoline, and PG&E used ocean water to chill them.
Morro Bay’s mayor, Wixom, mentioned she would love the Morro Bay website redeveloped into companies or different amenities that serve tourism, fishing and schooling.
“I’m not against battery storage,” she mentioned. “But there are a million places you can build it away from populated areas. The risk isn’t worth the reward.”
Wixom famous {that a} highschool and a whole bunch of properties are positioned close to the location, which closed in 2014 amid more durable state guidelines about pumping seawater.
“I want us to be a beach town where people can paddle board and surf without the fear of a plant burning,” she mentioned.
Wixom mentioned she worries that Vistra will finally convey the battery plant concept again.
“You feel like David and Goliath,” she mentioned. “But we know how that ended.”
