Watsonville reacts to the latest BESS developments
WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV) - New Leaf Energy wants to build a large lithium battery storage site near Pinto Lake outside Watsonville.
Proponents of the project say there's an extreme need for energy storage, and a plant like this offers a safer alternative to fossil fuels like gas.
But it's hard for a lot of people who live in the area to believe claims of safety because they are still dealing with the fallout from the serious fire at the same type of storage facility in Moss Landing this past January.
"I'm very concerned. Watsonville depends on the agricultural industry, strawberries, and apples. That is our economy. Already out of the moss landing fire, some of our strawberry fields are being questioned, and people are thinking that they shouldn't be eating those strawberries," said Shirley Munoz of Watsonville.
One of the speakers at this meeting, a Stanford Energy professor.
"Batteries are very useful at helping to eliminate the main problem we're facing. In the local communities, which is air pollution, also in the community which is climate change," said Dr. Mark Jacobson.
He tried to ease concerns that this new facility could go up in flames just like the one in Moss Landing, saying that fire was due to batteries being stored indoors and stacked altogether with no space in between the batteries. It would be different, he said at the Watsonville plant.
"A lot of the community is in here with concern, true concern about lithium batteries," says Evan Cusack of Santa Cruz. "We live in the Monterey Bay, where, in any given moment, right next to that battery storage plant, you can see the most diverse bird population in the world. Why would we want to sacrifice that just to have more electronic storage? It just seems like that's not a very long-lasting plan."
This was the first of three planned public forums. There's another one coming up in July and then a final one in August.
The Energy Commission is made up of volunteers who are not employed by the county. However, the forums are meant to inform both the public and the board of supervisors, who actually will have a say in how this whole process goes about.
