Planning Commission recommends approval for battery storage facility with decommissioning and emergency-response conditions

The Virginia Beach Planning Commission on May 14 recommended approval of a conditional-use permit, rezoning and related street-closure requests from Starling BESS Energy LLC for a large battery energy storage system on a Dam Neck Road property, while adding conditions requiring an engineer’s decommissioning-cost report and an emergency-response plan to the site plan.

The recommendation, which goes next to City Council for final approval, followed more than three hours of technical testimony and commissioner questions focused on fire risk, decommissioning costs, setbacks and regulatory oversight.

Attorney Eddie Bridal, representing the applicant, told the commission the project responds to the region’s need to store offshore wind energy and that construction will occur only if Dominion Power integrates the facility into the grid. "This facility with this use permit will only be built if and not really a question of if, but…