Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Net Zero Carbon Emissions goals call for accelerating the state’s transition to 90% “clean energy” by 2035, 95% by 2040, and 100% by 2045.
The sale of new gas cars will be banned by 2035, leaving wealthy Californians the choice of expensive but inconvenient plug-in electric vehicles and for low-income people, the burden of getting around on impractical buses, trolleys, bicycles and sneakers, which will further diminish their earnings capacity and make them poorer.
Offshore, 1,700 new wind turbines over 1,000 feet tall (354’ taller than the Golden Gate Bridge) will be added to the Pacific Ocean off the beautiful California Coast doing God knows what to sea life and the fishing industry.
Because electricity must be produced and consumed at the same time and there is more energy demand than what windmills and solar panels can generate, Californians are experiencing costly bills, blackouts, rolling brownouts, and energy instability, thus making storing energy an urgent priority to keep the lights on.
Enter ESS/BESS (Energy Storage Systems/Battery Energy Storage Systems) in what is being calledCalifornia’s “Golden Age of Energy Storage.”
During daylight, battery storage systems are charged and energy is stored by electricity generated by solar when sunlight is abundant and inexpensive, then discharged from the battery storage system during times of high usage like air conditioning during hot summer nights when there is no sun for solar panels. On the downside, where do you put them?
Battery storage facilities emit a loud buzzing hum 24/7, diminish home values if built in a neighborhood, and are potentially hazardous as evidenced by several recent battery storage facility disasters. An editorial in California’s Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper said that while the move to energy storage will continue, the Morro Bay Moss Landing fire “was also a reminder that battery blazes are becoming increasingly common and destructive –“
In Chandler, AZ, a fire at a battery storage facility burned for nearly two weeks prompting a quarter-mile evacuation. Like a scene from a Science Fiction movie, an unexpected explosion occurred at a battery storage facility in Peoria, Arizona in 2019. As a result of cascading thermal runaway*, four firefighters received near-death injuries. The HAZMAT team noted low-lying white clouds of a gas/vapor mixture issuing from the structure and drifting through the desert.
Think affluent cities such as Presidio Heights, Bel Air, La Jolla, or Del Mar will ever grapple with the threat of explosions, fires, and drifting white clouds of gas/vapor mixtures in their neighborhoods?
Recently, during public comments at a La Mesa City Council meeting, Lake Murray/El Paso residents voiced their anxiety about living next door to a proposed battery storage facility (pictured above).
They will have a chance to again in the near future.
And next time there will be a vote
*Lithium cells can experience thermal runaway causing them to release very hot flammable, toxic gases. In large storage systems, the failure of just one lithium cell can cascade to include hundreds of individual cells. The hot flammable gases can result in an explosion or a very difficult-to-extinguish fire. Standard operating procedures do not exist for battery energy storage system fires as there is no way to cut off the gas supply. Fire services are unaware and inexperienced with the fire and explosion hazards of BESS.
– fema.gov/es/case-study/emerging-hazards-battery-energy-storage-system-fires
– Laura Lothian is a Realtor and member of La Mesa City council.
