Terra-Gen to Hold Zoom Session on Coleman Battery Facility Plan

The company behind the proposal to build a green energy battery storage facility on the site of the former Coleman High School has launched a public relations campaign “to explain the project, its extensive safety and health components and wide-ranging benefits.”

The facility at 430 Hurley Ave. will not manufacture batteries. What it will do is host an unspecified number of 14-foot-high structures each containing hundreds of lithium-ion batteries, enough to collectively store approximately 250 megawatts of renewable energy drawn from the grid when demand is low and fed back into the grid when demand is high.

News of the project spread swiftly when first announced last month and public discussion of the technology, its benefits, hazards and safety record has proliferated at official meetings and on social media.

The Hurley project's owner is Alcazar ESS, LLC, a subsidiary of Terra-Gen, LLC, which itself is jointly owned by Masdar, an Abu Dhabi state-owned renewable energy company, and Igneo Infrastructure Partners, which invests in energy projects worldwide.

An inevitable step in the permitting process hereabouts — where citizen activists thrive and corporate commerce is viewed skeptically — Terra-Gen's campaign began in late May with UlsterCleanEnergy.com, a state-of-the-art, highly graphic website replete with easily digestible texts on “Project Benefits.” battery technology, safety measures, an FAQ and links to local official documents. It is, as Terra-Gen has it, “a comprehensive website that provides in-depth, accurate information about the proposal.”

Next on the agenda is a Wednesday, July 2 public Zoom call hosted by Terra-Gen Vice President and Head of Energy Storage Development Mark Turner and featuring two Terra-Gen consultants, one “a firefighter with extensive experience on battery energy storage systems,” the other “a New York firefighter with 30-plus years’ experience.”

In an interview this week with Turner, he described a local outreach effort to local fire departments, primarily Spring Lake, within whose jurisdiction the project lies, as well as firefighters from neighboring Town of Ulster and Town of Hurley.

Turner said training will be offered “annually or as needed or as requested from the fire authorities having jurisdiction to make sure everybody is not only up to speed once we start operations, but continues to stay educated and appraised of how to address a fire at the facility.”

Volunteers though they are, and the battery storage technology new, Turner said local firefighters will “require no special equipment ... There are specifics associated with battery storage, like there is with other electrical fires. But essentially it's the same PPE, the same process and approach for handling the facility, or handing an incident like this at a facility.”

Sean Heppner, Fire Chief at Ulster Hose Co. No. 5 told Kingston Wire he had met once with Terra-Gen reps and described them as “helpful.” He declined further comment and referred us to the Spring Lake Fire Department which, he said, had “exchanged a lot of emails” with Terra-Gen.

Kingston Wire has reached out to the Spring Lake Department for comment but received no reply as of press time. A public records request for the purported emails is in progress.

County officials too have been keeping tabs on the battery storage project. By email, county Director of Emergency Services Everett Erichsen wrote, “Over the past several years, Ulster County has proactively offered specialized training to all fire departments within the county, focusing on response tactics, incident operations, and mitigation strategies specific to lithium-ion battery fires.

“In addition,” Erichsen continued, “Ulster County maintains a contract with the City of Kingston Fire Department for Hazardous Materials (HazMat) response. Their HazMat team is available countywide and may be requested in the event of an incident involving lithium-ion batteries. ...Ulster County also participates in a Regional Intermunicipal Agreement with Orange, Sullivan, and Rockland Counties through the New York State HazMat Consortium. This agreement enables access to additional specialized HazMat resources when needed.”

Terra-Gen's first community presentation, via Zoom, will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 2. No registration is required prior to the online meeting. The community can join live at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84223037795?pwd=SnA2LWvNXJiuI10gBPqvUWCdrNlVL7.1 This will be the first of several presentations as the project proceeds through review by the Town of Ulster and New York State. Questions submitted in advance are welcomed by emailing info@ulstercleanenergy.com.