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County planners present updated renewable energy ordinance; commissioners ask about battery storage, setbacks and decommissioning
Summary
Stevens County staff summarized revisions to a draft renewable energy ordinance — clarifying 'battery energy storage systems', switching some limits from kilowatts to kilowatt‑hours, and refining decommissioning and setback language — and commissioners discussed thresholds, permits and potential PUC overlap.
County planning staff presented a revised draft renewable energy ordinance and a summary of changes the board requested after the second public hearing. Revisions emphasized clearer terminology for battery storage, adjusted measurement units for storage capacity, and added decommissioning requirements.
Staff said they replaced some references to kilowatts with kilowatt‑hours for battery storage capacity metrics and left a 20 kWh threshold as a baseline for single‑family homes while increasing the small business/multifamily threshold to about 50 kWh. Speaker 14 summarized research and said, “20 kilowatt hours was kind of a standard for single family homes,” and noted the state subsidy benchmark at 50 kWh for small businesses.
The draft also clarifies that the board will regulate battery energy storage systems specifically (to exclude other energy storage forms like gas tanks), adds a buffer/clear zone recommendation around utility‑scale battery fields to limit tree or brush adjacency, and retains a 2‑mile setback for wind projects while permitting the board to approve lesser setbacks during the interim use (public hearing) process.
Planners added more detailed decommissioning language after public comments: project owners must submit a decommissioning plan, provide financial security (default cash escrow unless the board approves alternatives), remove all infrastructure and transport components off‑site to recycling or landfills except where landowner agreements state otherwise, and may face county use of decommissioning funds if materials are stockpiled beyond a 30‑day limit.
Commissioners asked about metrics for triggering conditional or interim permits, whether university‑scale projects would be routed through the city permitting process, and how the Public Utilities Commission’s transmission routing interacts with local plans. Staff recommended finishing edits and circulating a final draft for additional review ahead of formal adoption steps.
Why it matters: The ordinance will shape where and how utility‑scale renewable and battery storage projects proceed in Stevens County, including safety, siting, decommissioning, and financial assurance requirements.
