Community opposition to big battery farms is spreading across western Washington just as the technology takes on growing importance for the state’s clean energy transition and to stabilize the electric grid.
A multiplying number of cities and counties have enacted moratoriums on permitting for new utility-scale battery storage systems over the past year. Over a similar timeframe, project developers withdrew around a dozen early-stage battery storage proposals from the interconnection queue of Puget Sound Energy, Washington’s largest utility.
Now, green energy groups, electrical trade unions and project developers are redoubling efforts to persuade the public that the big battery arrays are needed to keep the lights on as rising amounts of renewable electricity come onto the grid…