Nexamp, a clean energy company, shared an image of a similar site online, showing an already existing battery site. The Village of Sherburne is considering a proposal to build a battery storage facility on Knapp Road in Sherburne.

SHERBURNE – The Town of Sherburne will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 14 on a proposed plan to build a lithium ion battery storage facility in the town of Sherburne.

Sherburne Town Supervisor Charles Mastro said Nexamp, a clean energy company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois, contacted him at the end of November to propose building a battery storage facility on Knapp Road in Sherburne.

The facility would allow the batteries to be charged from NYSEG’s electrical grid during off hours. The batteries would store the power and sell it back to NYSEG during peak hours.

The property, located at 392 Knapp Road is a two-acre parcel located next to the current NYSEG substation.

“The idea is to eliminate black outs,” Mastro said. While we don’t often have black outs in this area, New York State is pushing for energy improvements to eliminate black outs due to energy usage throughout the state. The proposed project would create a 40-megawatt battery storage facility.

Mastro was not sure what the tax implications of this project would be. While solar facilities are tax exempt, Mastro was not sure that this type of facility would be.

In 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul doubled New York’s energy storage goal, calling for 6-gigawatts of energy storage by 2030, making it the highest energy storage goal in the country.

“This is new to us,” said Mastro. “We want to make sure it’s done right.”

Lithium ion battery storage facilities are not without their issues. The facilities come with safety concerns, namely that if water reaches the batteries, fires can ensue. Lithium-ion batteries can start extremely hot fires during which they produce their own oxygen, making the fires self-sustaining and very difficult to extinguish. In December a battery storage facility in Orange County caught fire and burned for three days.

Sherburne plans to adopt a six-month moratorium on the project. They then plan to adopt an energy storage law. If it is necessary, the town could extend the moratorium for another six months, but Mastro explained that if the company wants to move forward, ultimately, they will.

According to Mastro, Nexamp has a lot of involvement with local fire departments in their project areas and is aware of all state laws. He also said that construction of the facilities has changed in order to make them safer. In the past, the battery storage containers were installed at the proposed location. Mastro said, the battery storage containers are now assembled in a separate facility, tightly sealed, and shipped to the location where they will be installed. The containers, which resemble shipping containers, are then installed on cement pads.

The public hearing will take place before the regularly scheduled Town Board Meeting at the Town Supervisor’s office at 1 Canal Street in Sherburne.