Plans to transform the Morro Bay Power Plant property into a massive battery storage facility are in peril with the California Coastal Commission now critical of the project.
Vistra, a Texas-based energy company, has plans to construct and operate a 600-megawatt battery storage facility on approximately 24 acres of a roughly 70-acre site. However, residents, concerned the facility will endanger the public while negatively impacting tourism and the fishing industry, pushed a local ballot initiative that could stop Morro Bay from permitting the project.
However, even if the measure succeeds, new legislation allows battery storage facilities to garner approval through the California Energy Commission and override local governments.
In an attempt to untangle the conflicting proposals, Morro Bay’s new Community Development Director Airlin Singewald reached out to the Coastal Commission.
In her four-page Aug. 2 reply, Coastal Commission planner Sarah MacGregor discusses the permitting process, the ballot initiative, the new legislation and the commission’s concerns with Vistra’s proposal.
Currently, the battery storage facility is not an allowable use and requires a local coastal plan amendment, an application that overlaps the potential ballot measure, MacGregor wrote. If the ballot measure passes in November, the commission will help the city navigate the overlaps.
In regards to AB 205, the new legislation, both California Energy Commission and Coastal Commission approvals will still be required.
“We have reviewed the law associated with AB 205, and it appears clear that the process envisioned there would render the above process moot as it relates to city-specific efforts, but it would still require certain Coastal Commission processes to remain in effect,” MacGregor wrote. “An application under AB 205 would not supersede the authority of the Coastal Commission under the Coastal Act.”
In regards to constructing the proposed battery storage facility near the ocean in Morro Bay, the Coastal Commission found “significant development constraints,” including issues with habitat that supports special status species, the degradation of habitats, and the need for a prohibited sea wall.
“It also appears clear that the proposed battery energy storage system site is subject to significant coastal resource constraints that need to be carefully evaluated in any case, some of which at the current time appear to preclude such a use/development altogether under the Coastal Act and the local coastal plan,” according to MacGregor. “We are available for consultation on all of these issues.”
