🔴 Projects Status—Environmental Review
Bolero (this project has been withdrawn)
https://parcelsearch.permitsonoma.org/api/documents/7809888
Borealis
NOTICE OF PREPARATION of a Draft Environmental Impact Report and Notice
https://parcelsearch.permitsonoma.org/api/documents/7810296
🔴 Cities Questioning Siting
Acton, CA Acton, CA Town Council
Estero Bay, CA https://esterobaynews.com/featured-stories/vistra-dumps-city-will-ask-state-for-bess-permit/
🔴 Fires
Many fires have happened in BESS facilities for various reasons.
A California Battery Plant Burned. Residents Have Gotten Sick, and Anxious
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/california-battery-plant-fire.html?unlocked_article_code=1.v04.yUdq.jliFvsxye-KO&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Fire risk ignites battery site fears
https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=bde23560-ddd9-4499-8ac5-fb6967027ab4&appcode=PRE341&eguid=8edf5c7f-77ed-4fa8-bb03-ed30e8405d0e&pnum=2#
A Battery Fire Deposits Heavy Metals into Elkhorn Slough
https://baynature.org/2025/02/06/battery-fire-at-elkhorn-slough/
BREAKING: After Vistra Fire, Residents Report Illness, Scientists Confirm Contaminated Soil
https://hntrbrk.com/vistra-fire/
Fish kill after Fredericktown battery plant fire sparks urgent questions on safety, accountability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14npMDpxXLk
Lithium-Ion Batteries Burn For Hours in 4th Alarm Warehouse Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emgh_2D4rd4
3 fires since 2020 and dead fish
https://youtu.be/2Bas81OsV9Y?si=MUeq2LOOjG9afwap
BESS Failure Event Database
https://storagewiki.epri.com/index.php/BESS_Failure_Event_Database
Gothenburg Sweden and Jacksonville, Fl April 25 & 26, 2023
https://ctif.org/news/large-lithium-battery-fires-created-toxic-smoke-and-evacuations-jacksonville-and-gothenburg
French Lithium Ion Battery Warehouse Fire
https://ctif.org/news/large-explosion-and-fire-french-lithium-battery-warehouse
New York Reeling From Its Hot Battery Summer
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/batteries/new-york-is-reeling-from-its-hot-battery-summer?utm_campaign=canary&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=271033565&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9J9X6q3Et9cY3uDMh2cLFePcR-Hnpp9iLqLsxrw5RCXKImMIJJN6sgkePRhRHrjDFKNN-JsY1a14F6B6X760w79dmVJw&utm_source=newsletter
Valley Center fire of September 19, 2023
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2023/09/19/lithium-ion-battery-fire-in-california-energy-storage-facility/
Fox News video on Moss Landing and more.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiv2IS64uSBAxUklWoFHUlWClIQwqsBegQINRAG&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Df0srRrxoWz0&usg=AOvVaw1kZFYL2yc8Ok-6VcEIo_EO&opi=89978449
Moss Landing Megapack Fire of Sept. 20/2022
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/energy-storage/tesla-grid-battery-fire-shows-young-industrys-failures-and-successes
🔴 Fire Fighting, Fire Safety
Fire Safety Research Institute Symposium on Lithium-ion.
What You need to know about Battery Energy Storage Fire Protection
https://www.energytech.com/energy-storage/article/21216774/the-inside-look-
Protecting Battery Energy Storage Systems from Fire and Explosion Hazards
https://www.powermag.com/protecting-battery-energy-storage-systems-from-fire-and-explosion-hazards/
🔴 Earthquakes
Animation of Rogers Creek and Hayward Creek Faults
Expected Earthquake Performance of Buildings Designed to the California Building Code
https://peer.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/peer2019-05_ssc19-01_11x17.pdf
Modified Mercali Intensity Scale. What colors of animation linked above mean
https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/modified-mercalli-intensity-scale
🔴 Battery Energy Storage Hazards and Failure Modes
🔴 California Environmental Quality Act
Overview CEQA Process
https://mountshastaecology.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Overview-of-CEQA-and-the-EIR-Process.pdf
CEQA process flow chart
https://www.conservation.ca.gov/calgem/CEQA/Documents/CEQA_Process_Flowchart_OPR.pdf
Mitigated Negative Declarations
https://opr.ca.gov/docs/MND_Publication_2004.pdf
Current Sonoma County CEQA Notifications
https://permitsonoma.org/divisions/planning/environmentalnotices
🔴 Siting of Battery Energy Storage Systems
As of September 10, 2023, no corporation or government agency has developed and published any guidelines for where to build BESS facilities, and where to not build them. We have serious hazards here that many other areas of the United States do not have, such as wildfires and earthquakes.
Kern County, CA awarded project
A safer Siting: Bureau of Land Management Proposes BESSs with Solar Farms in remote areas.
https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-advances-clean-energy-california
Edwards Air Force Base CA
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/06/edwards-afb-solar-battery-storage-project-goes-live/
Bureau of Land Management Proposes BESSs with Solar Farms in remote areas
https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-advances-clean-energy-california
BESS need not be close to switching substations since direct current actually loses very little power over long distances
🔴 Other Energy Storage System Types
Lithium-ion based Battery Energy Storage Systems are not the only way way to store electrical energy. The Bath County Station listed below cost about half as much per Megawatt of Storage as the Moss Landing Facility in Monterey County
Iron air batteries
Sand Batteries
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221102-how-a-sand-battery-could-transform-clean-energy
Inside Switzerland’s Giant Water Battery
https://www.dw.com/en/swiss-water-battery-boosts-europes-energy-storage-plans/a-63923662
Bath County Pumped Storage Station
Not electrical storage, but relevant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amager_Bakke
🔴 Preserve Petaluma Watershed
https://sonomamountain.org/the-three-watersheds-of-sonoma-mountain/
Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=474
https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/biblio_files/Petaluma%20Historical%20Ecology%20med%20res.pdf