California Is Ground Zero For Growing Battery Opposition

The U.S. is successful nan midst of a artillery roar captious to keeping nan lights connected amid power waves, wintertime storms and surging energy request from artificial intelligence. But developers are progressively encountering communities acrophobic that ample lithium-ion retention farms could spontaneously burst into flames.

As installations turn larger and are placed person to neighborhoods, connected farmland aliases successful high-risk wildfire areas, section guidance is growing. That puts galore states successful a hindrance arsenic they dangle connected renewable power to meet rising energy request and to reside ambiance alteration targets. The description of star and upwind power is tied successful portion to batteries, which tin shop energy for usage aft nan sun sets and nan upwind stops blowing. They’re besides cardinal to nan maturation of information centers, which look rising guidance arsenic well.

The unreserved to unafraid sites adjacent cardinal transmission lines for artillery power retention systems has led developers to places for illustration Acton, a bucolic L.A. County municipality of equine ranches and animal sanctuaries. There, Blackstone-affiliated Coval Infrastructure wants to build nan world’s second-largest retention array, a $1.9-billion installation called nan Prairie Song Reliability Project.

Acton sits successful a precocious godforsaken upland basin that nan authorities has designated a “very precocious occurrence hazard severity zone.” The ferocious Santa Ana winds that fueled nan 2025 Los Angeles firestorms tube down canyons into town, prompting nan section inferior to occasionally unopen disconnected energy to forestall downed powerfulness lines from igniting fire. The San Andreas earthquake responsibility lies conscionable a fewer miles away.

Already primed for catastrophe, townspeople’s find that developers had softly targeted Acton for aggregate artillery projects stoked fears of business blight, occurrence and contamination of residential h2o wells and nan adjacent headwaters of Southern California’s past free-flowing river.

“We unrecorded pinch nan reality of wildfire risks each azygous year,” Don Laird, a resident since 1988 and a personnel of nan Acton Town Council, told authorities officials astatine a nationalist gathering connected Prairie Song successful February. “Acton is not nan correct location for a lithium-ion artillery facility. The risks are excessively high.”

That consequence deed location weeks later: In early April, a 385-acre blaze fueled by Santa Ana winds ignited respective miles from nan Prairie Song site, forcing residents to evacuate.

“This is truthful communal successful our community,” says Ruthie Brock, who notes a brushwood occurrence collapsed retired past August down her location astir 2 miles from Prairie Song. “It’s axenic insanity to put thing successful this area that brings added occurrence risk.”

A Coval spokesperson wrote successful an email that “there is simply a important request for clean, reliable, and affordable power infrastructure crossed nan United States, and Coval is proud to thief create and present that done our projects.”

Yet sentiments for illustration Brock’s are being repeated crossed California and nan U.S., wherever hostility to artillery projects has scuttled projects arsenic residents and section officials writer to overturn authorities approvals aliases enact ordinances to prohibition nan accommodation aliases restrict wherever they tin beryllium built.

“The rising tide of community-based opposition,” utility-funded nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute warned successful a 2025 paper, is contributing to “longer improvement clip lines—doubling successful immoderate instances—and higher siting and permitting costs, on pinch precocious rates of task cancellation.”

That’s a problem, according to Dustin Mulvaney, a professor of biology studies astatine San Jose State University. “It’s astonishing really overmuch we’ve transformed our electrical grid pinch batteries and we request much storage,” he says.

But while broad guidance to artillery accommodation sounds for illustration NIMBYism — shorthand for “not successful my backyard” — Mulvaney says it represents thing else.

“If location is section guidance to projects, successful galore ways that’s connected nan developer for making bad decisions astir wherever they put projects,” he says.

The U.S. installed nan balanced of 3 atomic reactors of grid-connected large batteries past year, and dozens much are successful nan pipeline to beryllium built by nan extremity of nan decade. To guarantee those travel online, developers will request to find a measurement to assuage organization concerns.

Six years ago, California boasted 500 megawatts of utility-scale artillery storage; coming it has astir 15,000 megawatts, 2nd only to Texas, and much than 110,000 megawatts of projects person applied to link to nan grid, according to nan California Independent System Operator, which runs nan grid. While galore of those projects won’t extremity up breaking ground, says CAISO executive Neil Millar, nan frenzy “is reflective of nan level of competition.”

Battery retention accommodation typically dwell of a postulation of shipping container-sized enclosures that, until recently, attracted comparatively small notice. But arsenic projects person proliferated and immoderate person grown from a fewer twelve containers to thousands, they’ve go lightning rods, peculiarly successful nan aftermath of a bid of fires astatine US lithium-ion artillery retention plants.

A 2025 blaze successful Moss Landing, Calif., made world headlines erstwhile it resulted successful nan removal of 1,200 residents, nan closure of a engaged coastal road and contamination of adjacent wetlands. The fires mostly progressive a type of artillery retention strategy built earlier nan constitution of stringent information standards that’s nary longer deployed. Battery fires tin beryllium much challenging to extinguish and cleanable up, though occurrence departments are progressively trained to grip lithium-ion blazes.

Scott Murtishaw, executive head of manufacture defense group California Energy Storage Alliance, notes specified incidents are rare. Between 2018 and 2024, information failures per installed gigawatt-hour fell 98% worldwide, according to EPRI, pinch astir 12 events a twelvemonth moreover arsenic utility-scale artillery capacity grew 50-fold.

“Battery retention is playing a captious domiciled successful keeping nan lights connected and will play a larger domiciled successful ensuring that arsenic we decarbonize, we besides support reliability of nan grid,” says Murtishaw.

Noah Roberts, executive head of manufacture group nan U.S. Energy Storage Coalition, attributes guidance successful portion to nan monolithic rollout of batteries successful conscionable a fewer years. “There are hundreds of power retention projects that are being built crossed nan state and nan speech we’re having is much of a merchandise of that standard than thing unsocial to nan exertion itself,” he says.

But overcoming perceptions that lithium-ion artillery exertion is inherently vulnerable has proven challenging, and developers sometimes substance mistrust by dismissing residents’ concerns astir fire, toxic threats and nan industrialization of earthy landscapes. The difficult waste of artillery projects tin besides fortify pushback.

Madeleine Krol is simply a cleanable power onshore usage master astatine nan University of Michigan who advises section governments successful her authorities erstwhile they person developers’ artillery proposals. “Oftentimes it feels for illustration these projects are already fresh to spell and past being presented to a organization pinch a awesome consciousness of urgency,” she says.

That was nan lawsuit successful Acton. “Projects for illustration Prairie Song are not optional additions. They’re basal infrastructure,” Garrett Lehman, Coval’s head of development, told townspeople astatine nan February meeting.

Residents’ first motion that they were surviving successful a artillery basking spot came successful January 2023, erstwhile a developer showed up pinch region support successful manus to build a 400-megawatt installation called Humidor.

The municipality of 7,700 group already serves arsenic a captious node to transmit renewable power from distant star and upwind farms to municipality areas. The transmission towers that dot nan hills link to a ample electrical substation successful Acton, making nan surrounding scrub lands highly coveted by artillery developers who could plug projects into nan grid without building long, million-dollar-a-mile powerfulness lines.

Surprised by Humidor, Jacqueline Ayer, a resident of Acton for 25 years and a mechanical engineer, logged connected to CAISO’s website and discovered that 3 further prospective artillery projects had applied to link to nan substation. She and section activistic Brock started scouring spot and firm registration records to find nan projected projects, and alerted neighbors that if built, nan artillery plants would industrialize hundreds of acres of chaparral and juniper surrounding nan substation.

“There is nary organization anyplace successful California that has arsenic galore high-voltage lines concentrated successful 1 area that’s a very precocious occurrence hazard area pinch precocious winds,” says Ayer, who serves arsenic municipality assembly correspondence secretary. “I’m nary NIMBY — I person star panels and a artillery astatine my ain location — but nary lithium-ion artillery retention accommodation should beryllium built present fixed nan highly precocious occurrence risk.”

At slightest 1 whitethorn not. The organization group Ayer runs sued to extremity Humidor, and successful October, a authorities tribunal judge overturned nan county’s support of nan project, ruling it violated zoning codes. Developer Fullmark Energy had not appealed nan judgement by a Monday tribunal deadline, according to Alene Taber, nan lawyer for Ayer’s group. A Fullmark spokesperson declined to comment. The institution has withdrawn an exertion to link a 2nd Acton artillery task — 1 of nan 3 Ayer uncovered successful nan CAISO queue — to nan substation.

Other developers are forging ahead. Coval Infrastructure sidestepped section regulations past June by applying to nan California Energy Commission for authorities support to build nan 1,150-megawatt Prairie Song plant, which would dwell of 2,035 shipping containers lodging lithium robust phosphate batteries dispersed complete 100 acres, including connected onshore designated arsenic ecologically sensitive.

“Prairie Song would commencement here, correct by those homes and widen for a mile,” says Ayer arsenic she pilots her Subaru past humble dwellings that would abut a perimeter wall topped pinch razor ligament towering arsenic precocious arsenic 14 feet. Even connected this wintertime time — erstwhile California gets nan immense mostly of its rainfall — nan scenery looks parched, and a ample Los Angeles County Fire Department motion adjacent warns, “Danger Extreme Fire Hazard Area.”

In its exertion to nan power commission, Coval notes that 80 wildfires person burned wrong 5 miles of nan task tract since 1911, and that fires whitethorn commencement connected aliases dispersed to nan property. But nan institution says nan installation “will not exacerbate wildfire risk” owed to information precautions for illustration clearing nan tract of vegetation.

The communicative successful Acton is playing retired crossed nan authorities and nation.

In Morro Bay, Calif., Vistra Corp. abandoned plans to build a 600-megawatt artillery retention works past October aft residents passed a ballot measurement requiring elector support of specified projects and nan powerful California Coastal Commission wished that impacts from oversea level emergence and nan facility’s location connected delicate residence made authorities support unlikely.

The aforesaid month, Engie North America suspended its authorities exertion for a artillery task successful San Juan Capistrano to hunt for a caller tract while this month, power elephantine AES Corp. cancelled a 320-megawatt artillery task successful San Diego County. Both projected accommodation were adjacent neighborhoods and high-risk wildfire zones and faced fierce guidance from residents. In a statement, Engie said it paused nan task for economical reasons, not because of section opposition.

Hecate Energy, nan developer of what would person been New York’s largest artillery power retention system, pulled nan plug connected nan 650-megawatt Staten Island task past August aft residents and section politicians lobbied authorities officials to termination it complete occurrence concerns.

Even successful Texas, wherever developers look less regulatory hurdles, nan authorities Republican Party past twelvemonth vowed to protect “counties from nan galore dangers associated pinch artillery power retention systems.”

Developers declined to make executives disposable for interviews.

With specified wide antagonism — and ambiance alteration making much areas dangerously fire-prone — it raises nan mobility of wherever nan further 29 gigawatts of batteries group to beryllium installed successful California by 2035 will go.

This autumn will output immoderate answers. In September, nan California Energy Commission will determine whether to fto NextEra Energy Resources build a 400-megawatt artillery works connected premier farmland northbound of San Francisco complete nan objection of residents and region officials who’ve restricted specified projects to business areas. The committee is besides group to norm connected Prairie Song successful October. An power committee spokesperson said successful an email that nan agency considers nationalist comments and whether a task conflicts pinch section regulations.

Mulvaney, nan biology studies professor, says artillery developers and authorities officials should return a instruction from battles fought successful nan 2000s complete nan siting of upwind and star farms connected ecologically susceptible land. Those fights faded erstwhile governments began delineating circumstantial zones wherever specified projects were allowed and impacts could beryllium minimized.

“A batch of these tensions astir wherever to build artillery retention tin beryllium resolved by reinvigorating nan readying process because different it’s going to beryllium a agelong slog to get projects built,” he says.

Woody writes for Bloomberg.