Battery Storage Debate Heats Up in Mount Pleasant

By Anna Carpinelli

With tensions rising over battery storage projects near schools and neighborhoods, the Mount Pleasant Town Board will hold a work session next Tuesday, June 17, to discuss new zoning rules with its planning consultant as proponents cite relatively low risks while residents and some municipal officials raise safety concerns.

Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, are rechargeable batteries that store and release renewable energy as electricity. They determine when to store and release energy based on patterns of demand.

“Because wind and solar are intermittent, you need a place to store that power so that you can use it when it’s most needed,” said Aaron Nichols, research and policy specialist for Exact Solar.

Currently, the town has two BESS sites: one behind Hawthorne Reformed Church on Broadway, and the other by the Community Center on Lozza Drive. Both were installed several years ago.

“We’re trying to create proper zoning for any kind of future BESS development in the town,” Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi said. “Respecting distance from property lines, schools, churches and hospitals, all of that has to be taken into consideration.”

‘Limits and Voices’

Some Mount Pleasant residents have voiced concerns about the proximity of BESS to the town’s schools. The BESS by the Community Center is within five miles of three schools: Columbus Elementary School, Westlake Middle School and Westlake High School. Hawthorne Reformed Church’s BESS is within five miles of the remaining school, Hawthorne Elementary School.

“We’re very concerned, things are kind of getting steamrolled without the proper limits and voices,” said Fran Carlucci, a town resident.

There are two additional pending proposals for BESS by developers in Mount Pleasant.

In November 2024, Acquest Development, which previously constructed the Amazon delivery station and the NYSCO Products building on Route 9A, proposed a BESS at Rosedale Nurseries in Hawthorne. The facility would have a potential generating capacity of 130 MW, according to the New York Power Authority’s Renewables Strategic Plan.

The facility would hold at least 30 Tesla Megapack 2XL rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Due to the facility’s size, Tesla will likely be heavily involved in its construction and maintenance, said David Stitt, CEO of Stitt Solar.

“From a technology standpoint, the quality of their batteries and their systems is phenomenal,” Stitt said. “Tesla particularly has been incredibly engaged with the marketplace and their installers to make sure things are properly engineered and installed.”

If completed, it would be the largest BESS facility in New York state. For comparison, Mount Pleasant’s two existing BESS have a capacity of about five MW each.

‘Very Disingenuous’

Another developer, New Leaf Energy, has proposed a BESS site on Wall Street in Valhalla. The developer requested a hardship waiver from Mount Pleasant’s moratorium in December 2024 to process its application, but the Town Board unanimously blocked it.

Mount Pleasant’s extended moratorium — enacted in September 2024 and set to remain in effect until this September — has stalled both proposals. Acquest Development was expected to attend the upcoming work session to share information about its proposed BESS, according to a memorandum from May 27. However, in a memorandum from June 10, the developer was removed from the agenda.

Due to the moratorium, it was unnecessary to meet with the developer, Fulgenzi said.

“There was no reason to have a discussion with Acquest on any potential future BESS units,” he also remarked.

Yet Acquest’s exclusion was largely due to community pushback, as residents are concerned about the potential concentration of BESS sites in the town, according to Robin Farrell, a Mount Pleasant resident, .

“I do believe it was only after the Town Board was called out on it by multiple residents, that they backed off. I feel it’s very disingenuous to say we’re in a moratorium, but let’s host this developer that has already picked up three parcels,” she said.

In recent years, there have been instances of BESS failures. In January, the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in Northern California generated a large fire, leading to the evacuation of 1,500 residents. The fire was attributed to a battery overheating, forcing it to rapidly release heat energy that caused system-wide damage.

Experts acknowledge that BESS fires can be caused by various factors, including overheating, defects in battery cells, damage during installation, or a lack of facility maintenance. Additionally, BESS fires can potentially release toxic gas emissions.

Comparatively Low Risk

Supporters of BESS argue that while the systems carry risks, those dangers are often overstated compared to other forms of energy infrastructure.

“There’s always a risk,” said Stitt, who has been involved in the solar industry for more than two decades. “You can have a tanker spill oil, that’s also a catastrophic failure of an energy system. I think the likelihood of a battery system failing, particularly when it’s done properly, is lower than a lot of other risks of things in our society.”

The failure rate of BESS decreased by 97 percent from 2018 to 2023, according to the U.S. Electric Power Research Institute’s BESS Failure Incident Database. Failures dropped from approximately 9.2 per GW to 0.2 GW during that period.

BESS creates an opportunity to have accessible energy stored locally, Stitt said.

“Batteries are a way of helping people and society diversify their load profile, meaning we’re not 100 percent dependent on that coal plant or that utility grid which are becoming increasingly fragile,” Stitt noted.

Fulgenzi acknowledged that the Town Board did not fully understand the risks of BESS prior to the construction of the existing sites.

“And now that you know more, do better,” Farrell said. “The fact that we now know so much more about these risks five years later, there is zero reason that they should even be—in my personal opinion—entertaining any development proposals for these sites until we have a complete policy in place.”

Retaining Authority 

In recent years, restrictions on BESS have been enacted by municipalities throughout New York. In May, Yorktown banned tier two BESS within its town lines. Tier two BESS are typically for commercial and industrial purposes, with a potential generating capacity greater than 600 kWh.

This past October, the Carmel Town Board amended zoning laws to prohibit lithium battery storage systems in the greater area of Carmel, Mahopac Falls and Mahopac. The change was largely in response to a developer’s proposal for a 116 MW battery storage plant on the border of Mahopac and the town of Somers.

At the state level, a bill pending in the state Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee seeks to streamline the permitting process for BESS sites by transferring authority to the Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission, a state agency.

In a social media statement from March, Fulgenzi opposed the Senate bill, emphasizing the importance of local jurisdictions retaining the authority to make land use decisions.

“I strongly oppose any state effort to diminish the power of our local land use boards to determine what is best for our community. We must retain the authority to make informed decisions that reflect the unique needs of Mount Pleasant,” he said in the statement.

Acquest Development did not respond to a request for comment.