ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV) — Several battery storage facilities have caught fire this past year, including one in Escondido, forcing hundreds to evacuate. In September, ABC 10News Reporter Perla Shaheen met residents in that area who were worried about another facility being built next to their homes.
"Very impractical that they would put something like this in an area where they risk not only people but our livestock," said Janean Huston.
A month later, Escondido temporarily paused any new applications for battery storage sites in the city. But that hasn't stopped these facilities from moving forward in other parts of the county. A county spokesperson told ABC 10News that ten in-process facilities are being built in these unincorporated areas.
"Because we were an early adopter or very aggressive in meeting our renewable energy goals, we had to build battery storage projects," said Jason Anderson, the President and CEO of CleanTech San Diego. It's a nonprofit helping to advance these sites.
"These projects are important for the environment; they're important for the economy," Anderson said.
Anderson says the cleantech sector supports 42,000 jobs in San Diego and has about a $10 billion impact on the regional economy. He told ABC 10News that the battery facilities store solar and wind energy so that if the grid fails, there is a reliable source of power.
"Most recent heat waves we've had, our lights haven't gone out; that's because we have backup generators in the form of battery storage projects putting energy on the grid," Anderson said.
Although data shows that fires at these facilities are uncommon, there have been four in San Diego County since 2022. Anderson claims those were in older facilities and that the fireproofing technology has improved since then.
"I think that [redeveloping older sites] would be cost prohibitive, but I know there are companies looking at what can we do, what should we do to make sure they're safe," Anderson said.
But these promises are not comforting enough for those who have already read the signs of what could come.
