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Draft ordinance requires decommissioning bonds and five-year engineer inspections for battery sites
Summary
The proposed zoning language adds decommissioning provisions, requires a bond and directs an engineer to inspect battery storage facilities and recalculate decommissioning costs at least every five years; commissioners asked whether annual inspections are needed.
During discussion of the battery-energy-storage text, a commissioner pointed to new decommissioning language in section 20 and said it requires owners to post a bond and arrange engineer inspections. As one member stated, the ordinance means "they have to give an engineer has to inspect that facility and calculate if, recalculate the costs of the eventual decommissioning" on a five-year schedule.
Commissioners debated whether the five-year review window is sufficient to catch containment deterioration over time and asked if an annual inspection requirement should be added; staff noted the ordinance contains site-inspection language and that permitting, electrical and structural inspections still apply through the building-permit process. No change to an annual inspection was made during the hearing.
The decommissioning bond and periodic engineer review were presented as mechanisms to ensure a site is properly retired at the end of its life and to protect the county from abandonment costs.
