A BESS is a facility or system comprised of thousands of lithium-ion batteries used for storing electricity, whether from conventional sources such as a coal burning power plant, or from solar panel arrays, or from wind turbines.

The containers in a BESS site are typically approximately 6’ x 10’ x 30’ and filled with thousands of lithium-ion batteries in each container. The Borealis BESS site is planned to have around 150 plus containers, together with electrical transformers, electrical inverters, and other equipment.

A BESS is absolutely NOT ‘green’ or ‘clean’.

A BESS can be thought of as a gigantic battery. By itself a BESS is no more green or clean than the lead-acid battery in a gasoline powered automobile.

Mining of lithium for the batteries and the manufacture of the batteries are both very polluting and carbon dioxide intensive, though again, less polluting methods are being developed that are leading to a ‘circular’ process to reduce resource extraction.

Recycling Lithium-ion batteries is very polluting as well.

When Lithium-ion batteries are damaged or malfunction, the batteries can enter a state of thermal runaway leading to fires that are very difficult to extinguish and can give off very toxic smoke. Such fires require huge amounts of water to fight and are almost impossible to extinguish. The fire and toxic smoke can spread quite far and are quite dangerous.

Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) siting is everyone’s problem. Especially if you live in or near Petaluma where a large BESS is proposed and is now going through an EIR at the county Permit office.

These systems are known to have fire incidents. Such fires produce very toxic smoke which can travel hundreds of yards.

A BESS battery fire could ignite a wildfire dangerous to Petaluma communities. The Petaluma BESS is proposed at an Adobe Road site in what the Sonoma County General Plan of 2020 deems is adjacent to a High Wildfire Hazard Zone.

Developers claim that BESS need to be sited immediately adjacent to substations due to loss of electricity in transmission.

This is not accurate. The major losses of electricity are in converting it to store it and then again to distribute it.

To site a BESS safely farther away would require a transmission line and the project would cost slightly more.

However, many BESS have been built and are being built far away from communities. Below are links to two examples of safely sited BESS.

BESS at Edwards Air Force Base. https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/06/edwards-afb-solar-battery-storage-project-goes-live/

BESS by the Bureau of Land Management. https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-advances-clean-energy-california

"An EIR (Environmental Impact Report) is a document required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to analyze the potential environmental impacts of a proposed project, identifying mitigation measures and alternatives, essentially serving as the core document used to assess a project's environmental effects under CEQA regulations; meaning an EIR is a key component of the CEQA process for reviewing projects with potential significant environmental impacts." 

No.

Here are a few examples:

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