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Administrative Law Judge Jim Mortenson has released his recommendation to issue a permit for the proposed solar energy battery storage site on the south edge of North Branch.  The ALJ issued his conclusions that the project does not present a potential for significant adverse environmental effects. There have been revisions to the plan since the public hearing the  Press reported on, held at the Lent Town Hall, in October.

The judge took under advisement multiple suggestions from members of the public, and the emergency response plan has been amended to include the permittee, DESRI Renewables LLC, taking on responsibility for equipment needs and training  for local emergency response organizations.

The company will work with local fire departments, etc. prior to construction to identify “gaps” in equipment needs for responding to the battery storage facility and the company will cover expenses for specialized training.

Upon becoming operational the personnel at the 100 MW battery site will do training with area responders annually, at the permittee (company’s) expense.

The use of dust control in the building of the facility was also a note of concern during the environmental review phase. The recommendation mandates developers will also not utilize any products that contain chloride based chemicals.

The state utilities commission still needs to take the final action on issuing the permit. The date is not known, as agendas for the next few weeks on-line did not include this action item.

The company will install the batteries on a 5.5 acre fenced area, while converting an overall parcel of 28 acres of ag land, on the east side of County Road 14.  The timeline is to start the project construction by the second or third quarter of 2026 and by the second quarter of 2027 the site should be operational.

The PUC is advised in the judge’s recommendation that this facility has the storage capacity of 400 megawatts ultimately. It will cost $172 million to construct and yearly operating and inspection/maintenance budget is $1.5 million.

Because this is a battery storage facility, DESRI Renewables LLC, stated  in its environmental review documents that it doesn’t anticipate much additional property tax revenue being generated,  because there is no “production tax” collected on a storage facility, which is the case currently  on solar array panels that are generating energy.

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