Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Energy Storage Public Comment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Resident urges caution on battery energy storage systems, cites failures and damages
Summary
A resident told commissioners he and his family had been approached about placing battery energy storage systems on their land and urged a public, studied process, citing a claim that 25% have failed with $1.5 billion in damage.
A resident addressing the Kittitas County Board of Commissioners on March 30 urged a public, transparent process before the county considers allowing battery energy storage systems on private land.
"25 percent of them so far in the last 5 or 6 years have had failures, resulting in $1,500,000,000 worth of environmental and property damage," the resident said, urging the county to study the systems and make any code changes via an open public process in light of wildfire risk and other hazards.
The resident said his family has been approached by energy companies about placing such systems on their property and that the county should publicly vet any code amendments before permitting systems on agricultural or shrubland areas. The board acknowledged the comment; no immediate policy action or staff direction specific to the comment was recorded in the transcript.
Note on claims: the failure rate and damage figure were presented by the resident as his claim; the transcript records no immediate staff verification or rebuttal. Those numeric claims should be independently verified before being cited as fact.
