ACP RECHARGE Recap: Getting Ahead of New York’s Future

By: Barry Wygel 

One of the panelists at the inaugural American Clean Power (ACP) RECHARGE: Energy Storage Summit summed it up: “where renewables are developed, battery storage follows.” It’s playing out in the states that are much further ahead than New York with renewable energy (i.e. California and Texas) and now we are starting to see the beginnings of the large-scale rollout of proposals for battery energy storage systems in New York. 

Trying to keep this blog for both a general audience and experienced developers, I’ll quickly recap that battery energy storage is an essential part of a modern grid able to help balance loads, smooth out peaks of demand, and fully harness renewable energy, storing wind and solar power for times when demand is highest on the grid.  

Some of the biggest takeaways from the panel discussions at RECHARGE were that the public backlash we see in some areas of New York is not unique, but also not universal. Oregon State Representative Emerson Levy said she hasn’t yet received a single call about the potential safety impacts or fire risk of storage systems. Oregon is behind New York in deployment of renewables, but Rep. Levy said almost all the calls she receives with concerns about storage are misunderstandings of how big the footprint of the facilities are. 

Lori Cobbs, from the Public Utility Commission of Texas said that her state is deploying battery systems by the GW with another 3 GW coming online in the next couple months (New York has roughly 300 MW deployed in total), and Texas can already point to case studies where battery systems have kept the lights (and AC) on for homes when in the past it would have gone out. She said there are questions about siting that come up, but for the most part, these projects don’t face roadblocks to getting built. 

A public relations expert working on battery energy storage system campaign, Saha Robertson, left the audience with a small yet notable takeaway. “Drop the energy and systems from the name, just call it battery storage.” A small branding move that might help alleviate some fear and is just plain easier to say. 

As you would imagine, safety was a primary talking point across multiple sessions. Paul Rogers, a retired FDNY firefighter, currently with the Energy Safety Response Group spoke about how a developer’s first call when approaching a project needs to be the local fire department. That’s who the town board will call to see how they feel about it. This is a new technology and firefighters are not going to be familiar with it. You need someone who speaks their language to walk them through what this project will be and what their role is.  

Speakers also covered new technologies including those in long duration storage, and while developments and improvements are coming and are exciting, the current technology of lithium-ion batteries are going to be the gold standard for at least the short term. It’s up to everyone in the clean energy space, from advocates to regulators to developers to learn about this topic and be able to speak intelligently on it. 

Another panelist spoke about how once the public perception and tide turns against a project, it is almost impossible to get it back on track. This underscores the importance of proper and thorough stakeholder engagement is, and how needed the work of ACE NY and other nonprofits is to educate stakeholders about this new technology.  

I’ll leave you with one more takeaway that is also a good one to cite. The number of “incidents” at battery storage facilities has remained roughly the same over the past several years, despite the exponential growth and deployment. Speakers also pointed to the three incidents we saw in New York in the summer of 2023 and complimented the Governor for using incidents to gather air, water, and soil data to conclusively prove that these facilities failed successfully. They didn’t cause any negative effects for neighbors. Those incidents give us, as advocates and developers, proof points to use in outreach. 

There was about 300 people in attendance at the conference, and the optimism around this technology was contagious. It will be an exciting couple of years as we look to meet our new 6 GW goal in the next five and a half years.