Developer New Leaf assures Watsonville officials its battery storage project would meet safety standards

Developers of a controversial proposed battery storage facility just outside Watsonville made their case to city officials earlier this week for why they believe the project is safe and unlikely to experience a catastrophic blaze like the one in Moss Landing. 

Massachusetts-based New Leaf Energy provided city councilmembers with an overview of the 200-megawatt battery storage facility it wants to build at 90 Minto Rd., just outside the Watsonville city limits. The project has raised concerns among Santa Cruz County residents following a massive fire at a battery storage facility in Moss Landing in January. 

The 14-acre project, which developers are calling “Seahawk,” is pending approval at the county level. The Watsonville City Council won’t get to vote on the project because it is located in an unincorporated area of the county. Tuesday night’s meeting was mainly a courtesy to Watsonville’s elected officials to allow them to learn and ask New Leaf questions about the project. 

Max Christian, project lead for New Leaf, told Watsonville elected officials that his company intends to ensure that the planned facility will meet or exceed National Fire Protection Association standards, new state requirements as laid out in state Sen. John Laird’s battery storage safety bill, which became law last week, and a county ordinance that city staff are still writing. County planning staff told Lookout in September that the ordinance will address safety standards and could possibly add more setback requirements near schools and hospitals. The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hold the first hearing on that ordinance on Nov. 18. 

The $200 million project aims to reduce power outages in Santa Cruz County and provide renewable energy to the power grid once it comes online in 2029, Christian said. 

What happened at the facility in Moss Landing was a “complete failure and it should never happen again,” said Christian. The 300-megawatt facility — the world’s largest battery storage site — caught fire on Jan. 16. The blaze continued at the site in Monterey County, just south of the Santa Cruz County line, until Jan. 18. It flared up again a month later, on Feb. 18, and was finally extinguished a day later, on Feb. 19.  

Christian told city officials that under current national fire protection standards, a site like the one owned by Texas-based Vistra Corp. in Moss Landing would have never been approved. The facility, constructed on the site of a natural gas power plant, stored its batteries in an enclosed building and used batteries that were highly prone to catch fire. 

Christian told Lookout in March the biggest difference between the proposed facility and the Vistra plant in Moss Landing would be the chemistry of the batteries inside. Vistra used what are known as NMC batteries, made of nickel, manganese and cobalt. This type of battery, at a utility scale, is more volatile and prone to “thermal runaway,” a chain reaction that causes a battery to overheat and catch fire or explode. 

New Leaf’s proposed facility would be built with the industry-preferred LFP batteries, made of lithium, iron and phosphate. This type of battery is lighter, cheaper and less prone to thermal runaway. Christian told the city council that a fire like the one in Moss Landing won’t happen at Seahawk because of the newer technology. 

Watsonville Mayor Maria Orozco told community members in attendance at the meeting that they were not allowed to ask questions or make comments following Christian’s presentation, eliciting boos from members of the crowd. Councilmember Ari Parker pushed Orozco to allow questions, but the mayor rejected the request, explaining that the presentation was for informational purposes only. 

“It just makes sense for us to think about what [a battery storage facility] would do to the city of Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley,” Parker said.

She also said the city should draft a letter to the county board of supervisors expressing concern over the project because the site is located near several schools and residential areas. The council agreed to take up the idea at a future meeting.  

The city is working with New Leaf to schedule a community forum sometime before county supervisors consider the battery storage ordinance on Nov. 18, said City Manager Tamara Vides. 

Christian said New Leaf wants to see what the county’s proposed ordinance requires of battery storage facilities and determine whether the project would get a permit before holding its own public meetings. 

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.