Santa Maria will soon be home to a battery storage facility that can discharge 10 megawatts of electricity into the grid in four hours to meet demand during periods of peak use and be a load source when power generation exceeds demand.
On Wednesday, the Santa Maria Planning Commission approved the facility proposed for a 1-acre parcel on Industrial Way on a 3-0 vote with virtually no discussion.
Commissioner Tim Seifert was absent, and Commissioner Tom Lopez recused himself from the discussion due to a conflict of interest because, he said, battery storage was a source of income for him in early 2020.
Renewable Properties LLC applied for the planned development permit to operate the facility on what’s currently a vacant lot at 2916 Industrial Way, just south of Primus Labs.
“The site itself is pretty perfect for a battery storage facility,” said Brian Madigan, senior permitting manager for Renewable Properties, noting that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said the infrastructure for connecting to the electrical grid already at the site will require very little in upgrades.
The location is zoned for industrial use, surrounded by industrial uses and is 500 feet from the nearest residence.
The facility will consist of eight storage batteries 32 feet long, 12 feet wide and about 10 feet high with power inverters measuring 19 feet by 12 feet by less than 10 feet, senior planner Frank Albro said in a report to the commission.
Madigan said each battery unit has a glycol cooling system as well as an air-conditioning system to control heat buildup, and fire, heat and gas detectors are located throughout the unit, along with a fire suppression system.
The facility will generate virtually no additional traffic once it’s in operation, as a single maintenance person will access the site once a month, he said.
Madigan said the inverters are rated at 75 decibels, which is the maximum allowed by city ordinance during the daytime, although he didn’t know how far away from the units that level was measured.
Regardless, as an energy facility, it is exempt from noise standards.
A 6-foot block wall with a decorative face and landscaping plus four street trees will shield the facility from Industrial Way, Albro said.
The rest of the facility will be surrounded by a 6-foot chain link fence with another foot of barbed wire atop that. Landscaping will screen the north side, and slats will be inserted into the chain links to screen the south side, he said.
Madigan said the project came about when Renewable Properties responded to a request for proposals from Central Coast Community Energy, a purveyor of renewable energy for much of the Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and other counties to the north.
He said Renewable Properties, formed in 2017, specializes in financing, owning and operating small-scale solar generating and battery storage facilities. The company currently has 18 facilities in operation with a total rating of 50 megawatts, with additional projects totaling 600 megawatts in the queue for future development.
Renewable Properties is headquartered in San Francisco and has about 32 employees.
Madigan said what sets the company apart from other investment companies is that it’s “responsive to community concerns and easy to work with” and its people are “driven to fight climate change and enhance the grid.”
