HARLINGEN — Residents along the city’s booming west side are standing up against plans to open a four-acre battery energy storage site aimed at backing up the local electric grid.
Today, city commissioners are set to consider SMT Energy’s request for a special use permit to develop the 4.5-acre site on Tucker Road near Lincoln Avenue, an area now zoned for homes and retail business.
“The project will serve the community by providing the local electric grid with battery back-up energy reserves using proven, reliable and safe lithium-ion batteries,” Planning Director Xavier Cervantes’ executive summary states.
As part of the project, Colorado-based SMT Energy plans to install three 20-foot shipping containers with crystallized lithium-ion batteries which would help back up the local electric grid, David Spotts, the company’s co-founder, said Tuesday.
The unmanned so-called stand-alone battery energy storage facility would store lithium-ion batteries, he said, adding the batteries wouldn’t be electrolyte-filled.
“It’s comparable to an electrical substation,” he said.
Spotts said the site, which would follow federal standards, would pose “extremely low” fire and thermal runaway risk, or cases in which batteries overheat.
“There are multiple redundant on-site emergency fire suppression systems,” he said.
Residents’ opposition
Along Tucker Road, residents like Kevin Campbell are opposing the project in the growing residential area that includes a school and an RV park.
“That sounds alarming for industrial use to be right next to a residential neighborhood and RV park,” Campbell, a businessman and former longtime Harlingen WaterWorks System board member, said.
At a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, Linda Nguyen, who received the city’s notice of the proposal, was the lone resident speaking out against the project.
“My big concern is this is a developing residential neighborhood,” Nguyen, a retired nurse, said, adding there’s a state-designated backyard bird sanctuary on 1.5 acres of her property off Bothwell Road.
“I can’t see how it’s going to be good for the whole city. Could anything be explosive? Could anything catch fire? We have high winds that are crazy. Could this possibly affect future retail development in the area?”
