Developer Flatiron Energy announced a pause on the construction of a New Milford battery farm during a Jan. 22 meeting opposing the project, according to a Zoom by New Milford Clean Water Coalition.
The announcement came in the last couple of minutes of the Zoom meeting. Before that, Kate Losey, a presenter with the coalition, said there was a lot of hope when a concerned resident asked about the possibility to “quash” the battery farm.
“There’s still people in your neighborhood [New Milford] who aren’t even aware of it,” Losey said, pointing to how the community had only begun to hear about the project six weeks ago. “And already, we’ve gotten over a thousand people [to sign a petition against construction].”
The last opportunity to ask a question to the New Milford Clean Water Coalition (NMCWC) speakers was taken by Charlie McGovern, a director of development at Flatiron Energy, who instead took the time to update the community members about the project.
“We are here to listen; there are clear concerns we seek to address. It is our intention to pause our permitting application with the Connecticut Siting Council while we better engage with the community,” McGovern said.
President of the NMCWC, Joe Quaranta, said in an interview on Tuesday he was surprised at the pause because Flatiron was a large organization who “invested a tremendous amount of money into planning,” but he also said there were factors that made him expect the pause.
“In our short time being able to communicate with them… Flatiron has been very receptive in listening to our concerns and ultimately are in a decision where they decided to pause,” Quaranta said.
A battery farm refers to battery energy storage systems built to the scale of a utility which uses electrochemical devices to charge from an electrical grid and redistribute energy during peak demand to reduce strain on power plants, according to the National Laboratory of the Rockies.
One NMCWC presenter, Sam Brauer, who has a Dartmouth doctorate in bioinorganic chemistry and was described as a battery storage expert, said he supports battery energy storage systems, but took issue with the Flatiron proposal.
“We think that battery storage is a good idea. We think that New Milford’s connection makes it easy, but we have some concerns,” Brauer said.
Brauer pointed out three concerns involving the site location being on an environmentally sensitive flood zone. These included the safety risks of Flatiron using lithium technology in its batteries and possible negative economic impacts of the project, like with home values.
The other safety concern of battery storage systems with lithium is previous utility scale battery farms catching fires that can’t be easily put out. During the Zoom, Brauer played an infamous example of the Vistra Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility fire, which burned for several days and distributed heavy metals around the area, according to Inside Climate News.
During the meeting, Brauer mentioned that in discussions with NMCWC, Flatiron claimed their batteries don’t catch fire. McGovern added that they’re already constructing a battery farm in Uxbridge, Mass., which has been vetted by the Boston Fire Department.
Brauer disputed some of this reassurance by pointing out how Flatiron hasn’t addressed their other concerns about a major lithium fire releasing hazardous hydrofluoric acid around the site. He also said advice from the National Fire Protection Agency says to let lithium fires burn, which prolongs the air quality impacts.
To move forward with Flatiron and any New Milford battery farm, the NMCWC president said the coalition feels strongly about having no development on the current Aspetuck Ridge site and to find a technology alternative to lithium for battery energy storage.
“It’s our interpretation that Flatiron has taken our criticism of the current proposal and current technology… and there’s talks that they may be looking at different technologies, safer technologies,” Quaranta said.
In the Zoom meeting where the pause was announced, McGovern reiterated that Flatiron plans to use lithium technology in their battery energy storage system plant.
New Milford Mayor Pete Bass said that Flatiron was looking at other locations for the battery farm in the town, but would not disclose where those sites were, according to newstimes.
Bass confirmed on Facebook that Flatiron has not given up their option to purchase the original location on the Aspetuck Ridge property as they look into other options.