Planning Commission backs battery storage facility project in western Glendale
(City of Glendale)
The areas shaded green in this drawing would be future BESS storing sites in west Glendale just north of Olive Avenue. The area shaded yellow is a combined
The Glendale City Council will vote Sept. 22 on a planned-area development amendment that would clear the way for a battery energy storage system on the northeast corner of Olive Avenue and Cotton Lane.
During its Aug. 27 meeting, the Glendale Planning Commission voted 5-1 to recommend the amendment allowing the project on a 37-acre section of the larger, 255-acre Parkway 303 West planned-area development.
Larkspur Energy Storage is the project's name, and esVolta is its developer.
“No permanent employees will be on site, with the majority of the land to be occupied by the battery containers,” Glendale Planner Sydney Tirella said. “The applicant proposes an on-site substation, which is co-located with the existing APS substation directly to the east of the site."
Commissioner Bryan Hooper was not at the meeting. Commission Vice Chair Tom Cole voted against recommending the project.
Cole worked 20 years for Glendale Fire, then worked in a neighboring city’s fire department for eight years.
His concerns are that the nearest Glendale fire station is 13 miles away. And that the nearest fire station is a Rural Metro station, which is not part of the automatic aid consortium, whose members would respond to an emergency in Glendale.
“I personally have spoken to leadership of both the Goodyear and the Surprise fire departments, who were blissfully unaware of this project,” Cole said.
Attorney Thomas Galvin, who also serves on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, represents property owner Suburban Land Reserve Inc. on behalf of the Rose Law Group.
The nearest home is 600 feet away. If approved, project buildings would set back an additional 150 feet from residential areas.
The BESS buildings are designed with active cooling systems. A BESS stores excess energy with the capability of releasing it during times of heavy use.
“Being located next to an APS substation is ideal,” Galvin said.
James Caulfield, a senior fire protection consultant at Fire & Risk Alliance LLC, is an expert in the field hired by esVolta.
Commission Chairman Vern Crow asked him if esVolta has experienced fires at its 30-plus sites nationally. He was told it has not.
"What they’re doing now is large-scale battery testing. They’re actually lighting these containers on fire. We conducted one here in Arizona. And the spacing they get from the manufacturer is to ensure that there’s no propigation from one container to the next. That’s without any intervention. That’s without any water being applied,” Caulfield said.
The risk is environmental, from the plume of smoke. Some local jurisdictions are requiring plume analysis.
In a battery storage fire, Caulfield said, the prevalent elements burning will beeither hydrogen, carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide. That allows for more predictability than a typical house fire.
A fire station for this far western end of Glendale is loosely planned starting no earlier than fiscal year 2032, with the area between Sarival Road and Loop 303 being floated as a potential site.
That lack of a station is a concern for Cole.
“I’ve seen stations move. On this footprint of the 303, the station that was planned for it originally moved three or four times,” Cole said. “I just, personally, don’t have enough information or confidence that this is a plan that is going to come together for a proper level of fire protection. And I certainly am a little bit troubled that the Automatic Aid consortium wasn’t brought into discussion about this project.”
Crow said he understood Cole’s concerns, but Glendale staff’s sign-off on this project meant a great deal.
“To a certain extent I’m in agreement with Vice Chair Cole. But I also have faith in the staff that they’re not going to let anything go awry here. They’ve worked long and hard on this,” Crow said.
Richard Smith Senior News Editor | Glendale & West Valley Preps
Richard Smith has been with Independent Newsmedia since 2016, and worked at a Sun City-based news outfit covering the Northwest Valley for 22 consecutive years.
An NAU alum and lifelong Arizona resident, Richard began as a copy editor and page designer at Surprise Today and the Daily News-Sun, then rekindled his love of sports writing by taking the reins on West Valley Preps in 2008.
For most of the mid-2010s he was the Surprise editor and West Valley Preps reporter. Now he’s the West Valley Preps Editor and Surprise Associate Editor.
As COVID restrictions slowly lift, Richard is cautiously optimistic he will visit book stores, football fields and gyms again this fall.
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here