Queens residents protest proposed battery storage facility

Just about every Saturday this summer, members of the Addisleigh Park Civic Organization and other Southeast Queens residents have gathered at Linden Boulevard and 180th Street to protest the construction of a new energy project.

“It’s too close to this particular business that has tires and oil and gas and it’s too close to the homes,” said Adjoa Dgifa, a longtime resident of Addisleigh Park.

The vacant lot at the St. Albans intersection is zoned for commercial use. The company NineDot Energy plans to build a Battery Energy Storage System, or BESS, at the site. It would resemble one on Staten Island that NineDot Energy recently showed to a NY1 crew.

BESS facilities store energy in lithium-ion batteries housed in fortified containers for use when demand is high and the electrical grid needs support. City officials say the systems help meet carbon-neutral goals because they store renewable energy from wind and solar, reduce reliance on fossil fuels and stabilize the grid.

“Five megawatts of energy storage aggregated with solar,” said Anthony Santamaria, NineDot Energy senior vice president of engineering and construction. “The way this system operates, this particular system’s use case is that it is storing power during low-use times and it’s dispatching when there’s a high energy demand on the electrical grid.”

Residents who have protested say the facility is too close to homes and businesses in a largely residential neighborhood, especially given the recent fires caused by lithium-ion batteries.

“And it makes no sense for them to want to do this in a residential community,” said William Seaberry, owner of Seamoren Inc. Restaurant.

“We found other sites for them a couple of blocks away in the industrial areas still in this community but not impacting our residents,” said William Scarborough, president of the Addisleigh Park Civic Association.

The FDNY said most of the batteries linked to hundreds of fires and dozens of deaths in recent years were unregulated and did not meet nationally recognized safety standards. FDNY officials said the agency inspects all facilities to ensure they meet code and safety requirements.

“The difference is a Battery Energy Storage System is highly engineered and highly regulated,” said FDNY Chief of Hazmat Operations Joseph Loftus. “Has to pass all these tests.”

NineDot Energy executives said its facilities are monitored around the clock by four entities, including the company and the FDNY. They also said the sites are equipped with technology to prevent fires and explosions if a system fails.

“One of the things with batteries is they typically don’t ignite the way you would see on TV,” Santamaria said. “They tend to ignite and then they go out. And when they off-gas, we want to make sure those off-gases are handled. That’s why we have sparkers within this system so there’s no possibility for explosion.”

But residents in Addisleigh Park remain unconvinced. They argue that even if safety measures reduce the risk of disaster, other issues remain.

“Having a battery farm in your neighborhood will undoubtedly cause insurance rates to go up, which people aren’t really thinking about,” said Michael Scott, a member of the Addisleigh Park Civic Association. “And it will also decrease home values.”

The company does not need special permission to build the St. Albans facility but must obtain inspections and permits from the FDNY, which is the permitting authority for BESS facilities, as well as from other city or state agencies.

A City Council oversight hearing on Battery Energy Storage Systems — which have proliferated across Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island in recent years — is scheduled for Sept. 15 at 10 a.m.