Fires, freeze on wind projects buffeting plans for LI battery storage facilities

New York State’s plans for scores of battery-energy storage plants by 2030 face new headwinds this year after another fire at an upstate battery plant in December, Suffolk County’s rejection of a variance for a proposed plant in Holtsville and the federal government’s freeze on wind-energy arrays designed to feed the batteries.

Developers who had planned large battery plants for Long Island already faced waves of opposition from most Long Island towns with moratoriums on construction of the plants, following fires at three plants in New York State in 2023. One of those, in East Hampton, has been back in operation since summer after a devastating 30-hour fire that required a near complete reconstruction.

Proponents of the batteries, which are part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan for a carbon-free grid by 2040, say battery-plant fires have been greatly reduced in recent years and new plants in the state are subject to strict new fire codes that went into effect this month. The codes mandate intense scrutiny of the plants’ designs, continuing inspections and faster emergency response plans.

But 2025 was bookended by fires at plants in January and December that have provided fuel for opponents who say the plants don’t belong near residential areas, schools and evacuation routes. A massive fire at a plant in Northern California last year burned for days at one of the country’s largest such plants.

Last month, a battery plant in upstate Warwick had a third fire in two years and the site has since been condemned by Warwick village,  which issued violations because the plant lacked a valid certificate of compliance, according to media reports. The owner of that plant, Convergent Energy and Power, noted the fire was extinguished within 24 hours without injuries and maintained air quality around the facility “was safe,” spokeswoman Kate Siskel said in an email.

“It is important to note that the safety measures in place for this system — and all of Convergent’s systems in New York State — meet or exceed applicable codes and rules,” Siskel wrote, adding the company is addressing the missing certificate of compliance “directly with the Village.

“Battery storage is a proven technology, and the risks are well-understood, so fires are rare, but that does not mean they never happen," Siskel said, noting Convergent is “confident in our ability to manage risks.”

But those assurances do little to assuage those who live in Long Island areas that have been identified as potential battery sites.

“It tells me that these things can still go on fire,” said Doug Augenther, a Glenwood Landing resident who lives less than a mile from the proposed site of a since-withdrawn battery plant. “Are they getting safer? Yes, but as long as the electrolyte in them is highly flammable, there will be fires.”

The battery facilities planned for Long Island vary in size from less than an acre for a facility operating on Brookhaven Town land in Patchogue to more than 6 acres for the planned Holtsville plant. The plants feature row upon row of large storage containers, each filled with hundreds of thousands of AA-size lithium-ion batteries like those used in other electronic products.

The batteries are used safely in countless rechargeable electronic products and utility storage systems, but improper use, poor design or damage can cause them to catch fire and, in the worst scenario, experience an extremely high temperature thermal runaway process that is exceedingly difficult to extinguish.

Fire wasn’t the concern of Suffolk County’s health services department when it rejected a variance for a planned battery in Holtsville that is moving closer to construction. It was the potential impact on groundwater in a deep-recharge well that is one-third of a mile from the site and 50 feet below the surface.

As Newsday reported, the county in October declined to issue a variance for the plant because of the planned storage of more than18,000 gallons of petroleum distillate oil and 99 gallons of electrolyte containing lead, arsenic and sulfuric acid, among other fluids.

Savion Energy, a division of Shell that is developing the Holtsville Battery Storage plant, subsequently sued Suffolk in an attempt to overturn the rejection. Suffolk County and Savion declined to comment on the lawsuit.

But the Suffolk County Water Authority has been monitoring the planned placement of battery storage plants across the county for months, and in Holtsville in particular, said Jeff Szabo, the authority’s chief executive.

“We most certainly had a lot of questions about these types of facilities,” Szabo told Newsday, adding the agency has mapped out proposed sites across Suffolk to gauge which are within potential impact zones of its wells.

As for offshore wind, the Trump administration’s latest stop-work order for those projects has halted most work on one 924-megawatt array, Sunrise Wind, that was scheduled to send its power to Long Island, with batteries in Brookhaven Town part of the plan to store any excess power when wind power isn’t being used by the grid. Offshore wind plants produce most of their energy in low-demand winter time, so storing large amounts of the power around the Holtsville landing point is key.

LIPA last year said it would defer to the state to arrange new contracts for battery-energy storage plants, which store hours of energy to operate sections of the grid.

Hochul, whose vision for 6,000 megawatts of batteries across the state by 2030 is the driving impetus for the plants, has defended the need for them in spite of recent events.

“While other states are rapidly investing in storage to stabilize their grids and lower costs, doing nothing risks leaving New York's economy behind and forcing New Yorkers to pay,” Hochul spokesman Ken Lovett said in an email. He pointed to the new fire-code regulations for batteries and noted the Warwick facility where the fires took place “predate the new regulations.”

Hochul faces a reelection challenge this year and her anticipated Republican opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, has been a critic of battery storage in residential communities. Earlier this year, his spokesman, Chris Boyle, issued a statement saying Blakeman opposed the Empire Wind project off Jones Beach “as well as the lithium battery storage facilities and will continue to advocate against both.”

The viability of projects, including in the face of continuing moratoriums, may be leading some developers to reduce their exposure. A list by the New York State Independent System Operator of projects seeking to connect to the electric grid has been whittled to 20 projects on Long Island as of November. The figure had been more than 50 last spring. Only one of the current projects listed is in Nassau, at the Barrett power plant in Island Park. New to the list is 79.9 megawatt plant called the Holtsville Brookhaven Battery Storage plant.

Kelly Cooper, a spokeswoman for Savion, said despite the absence of Savion’s Setauket Energy Storage plant from the NYISO November queue, the proposal “remains an active project.”

But it could face new scrutiny from the Brookhaven Town Board as developers request building permits and other approvals this year. Brookhaven stands to gain $139 million over 25 years from offshore wind.

Asked how Brookhaven would view permit requests, Supervisor Dan Panico said, “We may evaluate the land-use applications when the time is right, but right now there needs to be a lot more work done by the applicants and the state of New York because you cannot expect the town board or any town to do this outreach for you.”

Panico noted any application that needs a change of zone “likely has a much higher bar with regard to being successful.”

The Setauket project has a parcel that would require such a change. And he said the Warwick fire won’t help.

“Any fire certainly does not assuage the reasonable fears that residents have,” he said.

Hochul’s administration has been more visible in recent months in support of battery storage, holding a forum on Long Island in November and touting the new fire safety codes.

In an interview with Newsday in late November, David Sandbank, senior vice president of integrated energy solutions at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which administers the state’s battery programs, said the new fire-safety standards position New York “one of the leading states in the country right now if not the world with the highest standards.”

Asked why the state doesn’t wait for a safer technology to power the batteries, he said, “It’s not so much the chemistry or the technology; it’s the standards you put around it.”

“Lithium ion is the prominent technology for all batteries across the world,” Sandbank said. “It’s very affordable and its mass produced and easier to deploy, and we have a lot of experience with it.”

NYSERDA is also investing in non-lithium approaches for the future, too, he said, but for now lithium ion “happens to be the most effective, power dense and most affordable technology.”

Asked if NYSERDA this year plans to exert its authority and override local moratoriums, Sandbank said, “I can’t answer about what we’re prepared to do or not prepared to do, but I think this should be an ongoing conversation.”

He continued, “What’s now more critical is to educate the communities, the fire departments about our lessons learned from the data so that they can make the decisions on the setbacks from the local perspective.”

For the Hauppauge Fire District, the setbacks would mean moving a planned 79-megawatt plant it opposes at least a mile away from homes, schools and major roadways, Hauppauge Fire District spokesman Louis Marcus said. He said he isn’t convinced the newer codes will matter.

“Every time they say they’re safe, another one catches fire,” Marcus said. The fire in Warwick, he added, “blows apart the theory that these systems have been redesigned and are firesafe.” 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.