Quick Take
New Leaf Energy, the Massachusetts-based developer behind the proposed battery storage facility in Watsonville, will withdraw its application from Santa Cruz County to instead seek approval through the state.
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The developer behind a proposed battery storage facility just outside Watsonville will now seek approval from the state, rather than continuing the permitting process with Santa Cruz County.
New Leaf Energy said in a letter to Santa Cruz County Executive Officer Nicole Coburn on May 1 that it will seek a permit for the project through the California Energy Commission’s “opt-in” process. That allows developers to bypass local entities, a procedure outlined in a 2022 law establishing the commission’s authority to approve renewable energy projects.
The company said the decision was made because it believes the state route would be faster, helping it meet its own deadlines for the project.
Max Christian, a senior developer for the company, previously told Lookout that New Leaf has had to pay millions of dollars to the California Independent System Operator – which manages the state’s flow of electricity – to keep its place in the long line of projects trying to connect to the power grid. To do that, however, the project needs to meet certain thresholds, one of which is advancing through the permitting process.
In the letter, New Leaf said it “has been clear about CAISO-imposed deadlines that drive the need for the permitting process to move forward at a reasonable pace.”
The company also said county delays in voting on a proposed battery storage ordinance played a part in creating “too much timing and commercial risk” for the project to meet the independent system operator’s March 2027 deadline.
Last month, New Leaf confirmed to Lookout that it had started exploring a path to seek approval from the state after “a careful analysis” of changes made to the county’s battery storage ordinance in January by the board of supervisors.
Christian said certain amendments, such as requiring additional approval from the board of supervisors in case of an ownership change, raised “serious concerns” about the project’s ability to meet the new requirements. New Leaf also took issue with two other requirements regarding the preservation of agricultural land, as the project site will use a portion of an apple orchard.
“Given that New Leaf has been meeting with the state, this development is not unexpected,” Tiffany Martinez, spokesperson for the county’s planning department, said via email.
As of Tuesday afternoon, New Leaf hadn’t formally withdrawn its county application, she said. A developer can file its application with the state energy commission “no less than 30 days” after a pre-filing meeting. In New Leaf’s case, the company can file its application starting next week at the earliest.
While the project is moving forward at the state level, the county’s expectations remain unchanged, Martinez said. She said the county is looking forward to how its ordinance will mesh with the state process. New Leaf in the past has praised the ordinance, calling it “one of the strongest battery storage ordinances in the country.”
But what happens to the county’s ordinance remains unclear. Last month, Martinez told Lookout that it was still “too early to determine next steps” because any progress on the ordinance was dependent on whether or not the project went through the state.
Following the board of supervisors’ approval of the draft ordinance in January, environmental review was expected to be completed by summer’s end, but that process has not begun yet.
Christian recently told Lookout that New Leaf was committed to going through the local permitting process, despite the company always having the option to bypass local laws by seeking approval directly from the state.
New Leaf submitted its project application in December 2024, weeks before a massive fire at a battery storage facility in Moss Landing, which intensified community concern over such facilities.
The developer has previously told community members and local elected officials that its project will be safer and will use different batteries than the ones that were stored at the Moss Landing facility.
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