For months, Dan Baker has been glued to his neighborhood’s Nextdoor feed in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Baker, a longtime photo voltaic guide, appeared for one factor as he scrolled: assaults in opposition to a deliberate photo voltaic farm and battery storage facility that might assist energy tens of 1000’s of houses in the neighborhood.
The native planning fee signed off on the undertaking in February, however some residents instantly mobilized to attempt to cease it, submitting an attraction. “We’ve got a extremely odd state of affairs right here in that it’s largely a progressive neighborhood and type of on high of the entire renewable power factor,” Baker says. “However this specific undertaking turned out to be considerably of a shock due to the opposition.”
The photo voltaic farm, proposed by the renewable developer AES Power, would sit simply outdoors town of Santa Fe in the neighborhood of Eldorado, overlaying round 680 acres with photo voltaic panels and a big battery power storage system (BESS). Some neighbors have argued that the batteries pose a significant fireplace threat. However specialists say that’s not the case.
Baker, and different native local weather advocates, have been combating the misinformation. After two days of hearings final week, the Board of County Commissioners remains to be deliberating on whether or not the undertaking can transfer ahead. It’s one instance of how tough it may be to construct a renewable power undertaking—and the way YIMBY (“sure in my yard”) help might help.
A ‘solar-friendly’ neighborhood
Eldorado, which was constructed within the Nineteen Seventies on former ranch land, was truly marketed as one of many first “solar-friendly” communities within the nation. Properties have been constructed to benefit from passive photo voltaic warmth within the winter, and a few have been early to undertake new expertise like photo voltaic water heating. However the concept of the photo voltaic farm has been largely unpopular.
“Proper now, they’re used to looking over 800 acres of unused ranch land, which they don’t personal,” says Baker. “However individuals have a tendency to think about that ‘their’ yard.”
The opposition echoes related efforts to dam wind and photo voltaic farms across the nation. Within the early days of wind power initiatives on the grid, solely round 10% of initiatives confronted pushback. By 2016, that had jumped to round 25%. Rich, white communities—like Eldorado—usually tend to oppose initiatives. A examine discovered that the typical group of protestors is made up of solely 23 people, although Eldorado’s consists of greater than 1,500.
‘Construct it in a safer place’
Most residents argue that they help clear power—some other place. “I don’t assume any of us are against the trouble of lowering emissions,” one neighbor lately wrote on Nextdoor. “It’s simply the unsuitable location, location, location!” One other wrote, “Clearly I’m not a civil engineer. However I do have a proper to object to this facility if there may be the opportunity of harm to my well-being and property.”
The group gave itself a pro-environment identify: the Clean Energy Coalition. (Astroturfing teams funded by the fossil gasoline trade have used related naming techniques, just like the “Save the Whales Coalition,” which fights offshore wind.)
In Santa Fe, residents say their largest concern is fireplace threat. However the proof doesn’t help their claims that the batteries are unsafe.
How batteries are designed for fireplace security
Whereas fires have occurred in battery storage techniques, these fires are uncommon—and getting even rarer. “We’ve got an amazing quantity of storage that’s on the grid working on a regular basis, particularly, for instance, in California and Texas,” says Nikhil Kumar, a program director at GridLab, a nonprofit centered on grid transformation. “Statistically talking, the chance is low single digits.” The trade has improved shortly; the variety of incidents dropped 98% between 2018 and 2024.
Out of the seven stationary battery fires which have occurred within the U.S. within the final 5 years, none have escaped from a single container. “There has by no means been a fireplace from a BESS facility that bodily unfold outdoors the ability,” Baker says. One fireplace cited by opponents, at Moss Touchdown in California, was in-built an uncommon manner—inside a former gasoline energy plant as an alternative of containers, and never following trendy security requirements. Regardless that that undertaking was solely constructed 5 years in the past, security requirements have already been up to date a number of instances.
A typical battery storage system sits inside a sequence of specialised models the scale of transport containers. Inside, rows of cupboards maintain battery modules. A battery administration system repeatedly displays every battery cell for issues. The techniques both use fireplace suppression or are designed to totally comprise a fireplace if it does happen. Within the proposed undertaking, the batteries can be 1.5 miles from the closest home.
Opponents overstating the chance
In Santa Fe, the photo voltaic farm opponents have repeatedly overstated the chance, says Baker, the photo voltaic guide. He’s responded by attempting to rigorously present the proper data on Nextdoor threads, or in individual. “They make these statements with out proof,” he says. “It’s fearmongering with out foundation.”
There’s extra threat {that a} fireplace might begin by chance at your neighbor’s home—and rather more threat {that a} wildfire might happen. Fires are pure within the native ecosystem, however changing into extra frequent and damaging due to local weather change; constructing extra renewable power might help decelerate the worst local weather impacts.
Even when the chance isn’t zero, that doesn’t imply that the undertaking needs to be constructed close to a unique neighborhood. Traditionally, most electrical energy in New Mexico got here from coal energy crops close to Native American communities, the place they handled fixed air pollution.
“Coal is assured to poison individuals each single day of operation,” says Lucy Gent Foma, a neighbor who has been advocating for the photo voltaic farm undertaking. “I simply don’t assume it’s honest for us to complain about the opportunity of a threat of one thing that may be mitigated, and has been examined and licensed to the very best degree of requirements out there in the entire nation, and we’re saying, ‘No, we don’t need that—however it’s okay that we’ve poisoned Native and underprivileged communities each day.’ That’s not honest.”
Why location issues
Below a 2019 legislation, utilities in New Mexico have to transition to renewable power. The utility in Santa Fe has informed regulators that it wants 2,000 megawatts of latest renewable power by 2030—or roughly 13 crops the scale of the one proposed for Eldorado.
Eldorado occurs to be one of many few areas that may simply tie into an current transmission line, which is vital. “Transmission strains are one of many hardest issues to get permitted in the entire nation,” Gent Foma says.
The road additionally immediately serves Santa Fe. Proper now, energy travels to town from farther away, utilizing transmission strains that undergo forests—and utilities have began implementing energy shutoffs on excessive fireplace threat days to stop unintended sparks. Producing and storing energy domestically would assist town’s lights keep on.
YIMBY versus NIMBY
There’s sturdy help for local weather motion in Santa Fe. Nonetheless, it’s inherently more durable to get supporters to attend planning conferences than opponents who’re motivated by fears about their very own properties. “It’s a lot simpler to mobilize people who find themselves indignant and attempting to close one thing down than people who find themselves in help,” says Gent Foma. Opponents are usually retired, she says, whereas supporters are usually youthful and should not be capable to go away work or their younger youngsters to attend a gathering
Supporters have been organizing as a lot as they’ll, and having conferences about find out how to right misinformation and mobilize public feedback. “The irony is that in the event you requested anybody in Santa Fe in the event that they help photo voltaic, they might say sure,” she says. “So I believe the overwhelming majority of people who find themselves solely minimally conscious of this undertaking are pondering, ‘Yeah, that’s a no brainer.’ There’s not the web of misinformation attending to individuals who would in any other case help it. One factor that’s turn into clear is that like help wants organizing as a lot as opposition organizes.”
YIMBY help could make a distinction, as has been confirmed during the last decade in the housing world. And supporters are starting to talk out extra for renewable power initiatives throughout the nation. “Neighborhood help could make an enormous distinction in countering the false narratives about these initiatives,” says Celerah Hewes, a nationwide subject organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, a nonprofit that helps mother and father take local weather motion. “Households that help clear power initiatives of their neighborhoods know that they’re doing their half to make sure future generations can breathe simpler and that we’re taking motion to combat the local weather warming that’s contributing to excessive climate throughout the nation.”
The clock is ticking
Delaying the photo voltaic undertaking means extra emissions now—but in addition signifies that power prices might go up. Even when the county approves the initiatives, opponents have mentioned that they’ll sue. “One factor that’s occurred lately that turns up the warmth is Trump’s Huge Stunning Invoice,” Baker says. “If there’s additional delay, or if the conditional use allow is denied and we’ve to start out over some other place, the price of the undertaking will go up 30% in a single day. And we shoppers must pay.”
