In a situation similar to what Granby faced this summer, New Milford residents are balking at a proposed 140 megawatt battery energy storage farm less than 2 miles from the center of their town.
Homeowners have created New Milford Guardians Against Flatiron to organize opposition, with many warning that a fire at the lithium battery facility could be a serious hazard to firefighters and neighbors as well as environmentally dangerous for the town.
With two important public meetings on the topic coming in January, local environmentalists two weeks ago launched an online petition drive to stop the project.
“This project plans to bulldoze roughly 10 acres of our precious land to make room for what they call progress — a term that, in this context, seems to equate to environmental degradation,” the petition on change.org states.
But Colorado-based Flatiron Energy LLC says it has carefully located the project on a relatively small part of a 102-acre site to avoid environmentally sensitive areas, and — along with the rest of the Battery Energy Storage Systems industry — maintains the technology is safe.
The company also contends that the New Milford facility would go a long way to protecting Connecticut’s energy supply against periods when solar or wind generators are not productive.
The facility would help “Connecticut in achieving its goals of energy conservation and sustainability. Pending approvals, the project will commence financing, detailed engineering, procurement, and construction efforts in 2026, with commercial operation planned for the entire project in 2028,” the company wrote in a draft of a permit application.
In its simplest form, a battery energy storage farm is designed to take excess energy off the grid during periods of high production and low usage, store it in a massive array of industrial batteries, then return it to the grid at peak usage periods or when extended cloud coverage makes solar farms temporarily unproductive.
The location of Flatiron Energy’s proposed battery energy farm in New Milford. (Courtesy of town of New Milford)
The company wants to put in on acreage off Timothy Lane near the West Aspetuck River and about a half mile from the Housatonic.
But a large contingent of residents insists the operation doesn’t belong there.
“This is a lithium-ion battery farm. You’ve all seen a Tesla Model Y on fire? Imagine that x 1000 worse,” one person posted on a New Milford-oriented Facebook page. “We don’t have the water supply nor the fire fighting equipment. That’s not to mention the toxic deadly fumes from burning batteries of this chemistry. It would kill everything downwind of the smoke source.”
Homeowners in Granby raised similar concerns when Key Capture Energy LLC put forward plans for a battery energy storage system on Salmon Brook Road. The company went on to successfully secure state permits; Granby lost a court case to block the project, but First Selectman Mark Fiorentino and Town Manager Mike Walsh led the town in filing a court appeal.
That appeal was pending in November when Key Capture surprised everyone by telling the Connecticut Siting Council it was not moving ahead, Instead, the company surrendered its permit.
Mayor Pete Bass last week posted a notice that Flatiron will host two public information meetings at the Sarah Noble School, one on Jan. 8 and the other on Jan. 21. Both begin at 7 p.m.
The town council is inviting residents to send questions for the company before the council meeting on Jan. 12, when the company will make a presentation.
Â