Energy·batteries‘We’re not guinea pigs’ — Cities fight plans for large battery energy storage systems over fears they will go up in flamesBy Michael HillBy The Associated PressBy Michael HillBy The Associated Press A large lithium battery energy storage system operated by Key Capture Energy that can power 15,000 s for two hours during outages or high demand sits surrounded by a fence in Blasdell, N.Y., on Sept.
9.Ted Shaffrey—AP PhotoMore and more, big arrays of lithium-ion batteries are being hooked up to electrical grids around the U.S. to store power that can be discharged in times of high demand.
But as more energy storage is added, residents in some places are pushing back due to fears that the systems will go up in flames, as a massive facility in California did earlier this year.
ponents maintain that state-of-the-art battery energy storage systems are safe, but more localities are enacting moratoriums.
“We’re not guinea pigs for anybody … we are not going to experiment, we’re not going to take risk,” said Michael McGinty, the mayor of Island Park, New York, which passed a moratorium in July after a storage system was posed near the village line.
At least a few dozen localities around the United States have moved to temporarily block development of big battery systems in recent years.
Long Island, where the power grid could get a boost in the next few years as offshore wind farms come online, has been a hotbed of activism, even drawing attention recently from the Trump administration.
Opponents there got a boost in August when Environmental tection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited New York to complain that the state was rushing apvals of sites in order to meet “delusional” green power goals — a claim state officials deny.
Battery growth spurt Battery energy storage systems that suck up cheap power during periods of low demand, then discharge it at a fit during periods of high demand, are considered critical with the rise of intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar.
Known by the acronym BESS, the systems can make grids more reliable and have been credited with reducing blackouts.
A large battery system might consist of rows of shipping containers in a fenced lot, with the containers holding hundreds of thousands of cells.
China and the United States lead the world in rapidly adding battery storage energy systems. However, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Australia, Netherlands, Chile, Canada and the U.K.
have commissioned or started construction on large jects since 2024, too, according to re from BloombergNEF. In the U.S., California and Texas have been leaders in battery storage.
But other states are moving quickly, often with privately developed systems.
While the Trump administration has been unsupportive or even hostile to renewable energy, key tax credits for energy storage jects were maintained in the recently apved federal budget for qualified jects that begin construction in the next eight years.
Developers added 4,908 megawatts of battery storage capacity in the second quarter of 2025, with Arizona, California and Texas accounting for three-quarters of that new capacity, according to a report from American Clean Power Association, an industry group.
That’s enough to power nearly 1.7 million households. New York has an ambitious goal to add 6,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030, half of it large-scale systems.
Lithium-ion fire worries Opposition to the storage systems usually focuses on the possibility of thermal runaway, a chain reaction of uncontrolled heating that can lead to fire or an explosion.
Opponents point to past fires and ask: What if that happens in my neighborhood?
A battery storage system in Moss Landing, California caught fire in January, sending plumes of toxic smoke into the atmosphere and forcing the evacuation of 1,500 people.
Experts in the field say battery systems have become safer over the years.
Ofodike Ezekoye, a combustion expert and fessor of mechanical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, notes that failures are relatively infrequent, but also that no engineered system is 100% foolof.
“This is a relatively immature nology that is maturing quickly, so I think that there are a lot of really thoughtful reers and other stakeholders who are trying to imve the overall safety of these systems,” Ezekoye said.
Battery storage ponents say a facility Moss Landing, where batteries were stored indoors, would not be allowed in New York, which has adopted fire codes that require modular enclosure design with required minimum spacing to keep fires from spreading.
Blocking battery systems People who near posed sites are not always assured.
In Washington state, the city of Maple Valley apved a six-month moratorium in July as a way “to tect us until we know more,” said city manager Laura Philpot.
Voters in Halstead, Kansas, which has a moratorium, will be asked this Election Day whether they want to hibit larger battery storage systems inside the city limits, according to Mayor Dennis Travis.
He hopes the city can one day host a safely designed storage system, and said local opponents wrongly fixate on the California fire.
The number of localities passing moratoriums began rising in 2023 and 2024, mirroring trends in battery storage deployment, with a notable cluster in New York, according to a presentation last year by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Winnie Sokolowski is among area residents against a posed 250-megawatt lithium-ion storage system in the Town of Ulster, New York, contending it is too close to schools and s.
“They’re banking on nothing happening, but I don’t think you can place it where they’re posing and assume nothing’s going to happen,” Sokolowski said.
“It’s just too risky if it does.” The developer, Terra-Gen, said the design will keep a fire from spreading and that the system “poses no credible, scientific-based threat to neighbors, the public or the environment.” New York State Energy Re and Development Authority President Doreen Harris said she’s confident the state has the right safety rules in place, and that scaling up the use of battery storage systems will “strengthen and modernize our grid.” She noted there also were local concerns in the early stages of siting solar farms, which have since ven their benefits.
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