No matter which way San Diegans vote in the hotly-contested county supervisor race this November, both candidates support building large battery storage sites that enable California’s transition away from fossil fuels toward green energy.
However, neither candidate would directly comment on one controversial project proposed on county land just outside the city of Escondido.
Some neighbors in the smattering of ranch homes that would abut the project are dead set against the so-named Seguro Battery Energy Storage facility by developer AES. The next District 3 representative’s perspective on the project is key.
Democrat Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer is fighting to retain her seat on the board against Republican Kevin Faulconer, former city of San Diego mayor. It’ll be a while before the winner gets a chance to cast their vote on Seguro. The project will be open to public comment once the county finishes reviewing a draft report of its potential environmental impacts. And only afterward would the project be up for a vote.
“I’m a strong supporter of battery storage,” Faulconer told me in an interview. “We need to encourage safe development but we can’t stop and put a moratorium on battery storage.”
Faulconer’s campaign wouldn’t directly say whether he supported Seguro’s project in particular. Gustavo Portela, a campaign spokesperson, reiterated Faulconer believes “local input and rigorous safety standards” are important for projects.
A spate of recent fires at battery storage sites in Otay Mesa, Valley Center and Escondido reignited fears that these lithium-ion energy storage systems were unsafe. Republican Supervisor Jim Desmond unsuccessfully pushed for a countywide moratorium on certain largescale battery projects. A few weeks later, the Escondido City Council unanimously passed a 45-day ban on new projects, with a potential 10-month extension.
Instead of a ban, Lawson-Remer, also the vice-chair of San Diego Community Power, one of the largest public power companies in the state, asked the county’s fire department to come up with new rules for battery projects. She’s also against a moratorium on batteries and didn’t want the board to take any action that would impact projects already in the pipeline, like Seguro.
However, Lawson-Remer’s campaign said she couldn’t comment on whether she will ultimately support the Seguro project due to her “quasi-judicial role” as a member of the board.
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Lithium ion batteries are great when energy density is the issue, such as portable tools or vehicles, but unnecessary when mobility isn’t required. There are safer battery types available for static installations, such as Seguro. They would require more sites, but would you want a non-flammable battery next to you, or a highly-flammable one? If battery sites didn’t burst into flames that couldn’t be extinguished, there wouldn’t be a debate about them. This is why our new power and transportation systems should be designed by engineers, instead of politicians’ 15-second sound bites and giving projects to their campaign contributors.
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