Quick Take
In the first of three workshops hosted by Santa Cruz County’s commission on the environment, energy experts from Stanford University and Central Coast Community Energy broke down what clean energy is and looks like, and how battery energy storage systems play a role.
Energy experts sought to reassure skeptical Santa Cruz County residents Wednesday about the safety of battery storage technology and its role in expanding renewable energy, months after a massive fire at a battery facility in Moss Landing and as county officials consider a planned battery facility near Watsonville.
Speaking at the first of three workshops hosted by the Santa Cruz County Commission on the Environment, Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, and Dennis Dyc-O’Neal, chief of power supply at Central Coast Community Energy, emphasized that battery systems are integral to reducing reliance on natural gas, stabilizing the power grid and helping the environment.
“Batteries right now are the technology that is beneficial at eliminating a lot of air pollution,” Jacobson said. “You do get the occasional fire, but you get fewer fires with batteries in vehicles than gasoline.”
Wednesday’s workshop came amid heightened community concern following a fire earlier this year at a battery storage facility in Moss Landing, just south of the Santa Cruz County-Monterey County line, owned by Texas-based Vistra. The incident has raised alarms among Santa Cruz County residents about the safety of pursuing a proposed 200-megawatt facility by Massachusetts-based New Leaf Energy near Watsonville. County officials say the Watsonville project, still in early stages, has no definite approval timeline but could reach the board of supervisors this fall.
While battery storage facilities do come with the risk of a fire, like the one in Moss Landing, they don’t emit greenhouse gases, said Jacobson. The fire at the Vistra facility happened partly due to the design of the facility, he said. Most batteries are outdoors and not in an enclosed space, and don’t catch fire as a result.
Dyc-O’Neal views the Moss Landing fire as an opportunity to improve battery safety. “Let’s learn from it, let’s make them safer,” he told the gathering of nearly 25 inside the county board of supervisors chambers in Santa Cruz. “You learn from these incidents, like at Moss Landing, and you focus on the bigger goal of greenhouse gas reductions, because that’s causing more harm than than this specific incident.”
The workshops are hosted by the county’s commission on the environment. Commission chair Kris Damhorst told Lookout that there is a lack of basic information about battery energy storage systems, how they operate, how safe they are and changes to the technology. The focus of the workshops is to lay the foundation for community members about what clean energy is and looks like, and the role of battery storage systems, said Damhorst.
“We really wanted to put some technical workshops together that would help hopefully answer questions that the community might have,” he said. Each of the three workshops will touch on a different topic related to battery storage systems, with experts on hand to answer any questions from the public and commissioners.
Damhorst said he’s received emails from residents following the Moss Landing fire, and has also spoken with community members who have been more vocal about their concerns over battery storage and its potential future in Santa Cruz County.
His main concern heading into Wednesday’s workshop was to avoid speaking about the pending 200-megawatt battery facility proposed for Watsonville. The commission is strictly an advisory group and does not create policy or vote on ordinances. “We’re trying to stay as far away from that debate as possible,” Damhorst said.
Organizers told members of the public who attended Wednesday’s meeting that the workshops weren’t meant to discuss any specific pending projects or permits. Damhorst asked attendees to keep their questions focused on the main topics presented during the workshop and recommended community members concerned about the proposed Watsonville project contact their county supervisor.
Residents who attended Wednesday’s workshop respected the commission’s request to not mention the controversial project. Nonetheless, their opposition was clear, displayed visibly through signs placed prominently along the aisles that read: “Stop toxic lithium battery sites in our neighborhoods!” Other attendees held smaller signs in their seats.
Nearly a dozen community members asked questions of both Jacobson and Dyc-O’Neal about the safety of batteries. Some referred to the Vistra-owned facility that caught on fire earlier this year. Other attendees also asked the experts on their perspectives on batteries using sodium rather than lithium and if there are other alternatives to battery storage facilities for clean energy.
Both Jacobson and Dyc-O’Neal noted that battery storage facilities are filling a gap when other sources of energy, such as wind and solar, aren’t available because they are intermittent. “[Batteries] respond much quicker than any other source of energy,” said Jacobson.
Batteries are rapidly becoming the main type of energy storage in the state and a crucial component of California’s goal to transition to entirely renewable energy by 2045, Jacobson said.
About 12,000 people die of air pollution in California each year, he said. That pollution can come from people driving gas and diesel cars or smoke from fireplaces.
Historically, the electricity grid in California has been powered by natural gas, coal and nuclear energy, said Dyc-O’Neal. California has phased out coal, but to reach the state’s clean energy goals, California will have to phase out natural gas as well, he said. As of last year, renewable energy supplied about 57% of California’s electricity, with gas-fired power plants supplying about 35%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“The question is, can we remove all the natural gas? My hope is that we can, but batteries are going to have to be an integral component of that,” Dyc-O’Neal said.
Wind and solar, while clean and less harmful sources compared to natural gas and nuclear energy, are often unreliable, said Dyc-O’Neal. Sometimes the wind stops blowing or there’s a cloudy day, he said. Batteries can help supplement the grid on those days.
If solar energy is the only option, it would be impossible to get to 100% renewable energy without batteries, Dyc-O’Neal said. Any excess solar-generated energy can be stored by a battery during the day and returned to the grid in the evening when the demand for energy might be higher, he said.
“Where batteries can greatly help is to absorb all this extra energy from the solar that we have in the middle of the day and use it when we need it,” he said.
The next workshop, scheduled for July 30, will provide an overview of the chemistry of battery storage systems and emerging technologies, said Damhorst.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.