WHATELY — Residents will vote on a new section of the zoning bylaw designed to regulate battery energy storage systems at the June 2 Annual Town Meeting.
“This has a long history, with a lot of time and energy going on here,” Planning Board Chair Brant Cheikes said at Tuesday’s public hearing on the proposed new section.
Currently, the town’s solar bylaw includes conditions for battery energy storage systems. After continued discussions at Planning Board meetings, the members plan to remove these conditions and propose an altogether separate section of the town’s zoning bylaw that specifically regulates battery energy storage systems, based on the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources’ model bylaw.
Many conditions in the proposed new section depend on three tiers for these systems. Tier 1 refers to systems with an aggregate energy storage capacity below 250 kilowatt-hours, or small residential or farm-scale systems, equivalent to about three home battery units, according to a document outlining the new section. Tier 2 refers to mid-scale commercial or agricultural systems and Tier 3 refers to large commercial or utility-scale systems.
According to the draft bylaw, Tier 2 developers must provide a site plan review. Tier 3 installations require applicants to provide a site plan review and obtain a special permit.
Besides a site plan, Tier 2 and Tier 3 developers must provide an emergency response plan for their installations, among other conditions. The plan would detail fire suppression measures and procedures in case of a fire, explosion or liquids or vapors being released, along with documentation of “adequate” water supply.
Under the proposed bylaw section, the height of the battery energy storage system must not exceed 35 feet, and Tier 2 and Tier 3 systems must follow standards for lighting, signs, visual screening, fencing and noise. Developers must follow the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s standards for noise, instead of a fixed decibel limit. Facilities would violate the bylaw by raising the background noise over 10 decibels or producing a “pure tone,” a “persistent hum or whine at a single pitch that stands out from other sounds,” according to Cheikes.
“The bylaw’s noise provisions are built on a simple idea: a [battery energy storage system] facility shouldn’t make the neighborhood noticeably louder than it already is,” Cheikes explained in an email on Thursday.
When asked by a resident about prohibiting specific manufacturers from installing battery energy storage systems in Whately, Cheikes said he was unsure if a bylaw “could legally embed something like that.”
“We have to consider within these bylaws, are they going to be so restrictive that when we send them up to the state, they say, ‘You’re making it too impossible for this kind of industry to ever come into your town,'” Planning Board member Laura Ross said. “I don’t know that it would be possible for us to limit down to that level of certain brands … certain technology as just totally not allowed.”
“We’re trying to strike a balance between providing some reasonable protections that are based on reasonable resident concerns about what these systems could do in the event that they experience an accident, and we certainly want to make sure that they’re not, under normal operating conditions, creating nuisances,” Cheikes said. “What we are not trying to do is find a way to overtly or covertly exclude these systems from our town.”
Although the proposed bylaw bans Tier 2 and Tier 3 installations within the Aquifer Protection District, Planning Board members discussed addressing private wells during Tuesday’s meeting to address “a gap in the draft,” as Cheikes described.
The draft bylaw would require that Tier 2 and Tier 3 systems be installed at least 300 feet away from any “private potable water well serving a residential dwelling” as a “blanket provision,” Cheikes said.
According to a document provided by the Planning Board, the members settled on 300 feet because a fire involving a battery energy storage system “presents a more aggressive contamination vector” than underground fuel storage or a pesticide tank, which warrants a 250-foot setback, according to MassDEP guidelines.
The 300-foot rule also provents a “de facto prohibition risk” by avoiding a higher setback, such as 700 to 1,000 feet, that would make it nearly impossible for battery energy storage system developers to find a viable location for installation, the provided document reads.
When asked his thoughts on the proposed 300-foot rule, Whately Fire Chief JP Kennedy stressed that land features like hills and terrain influence the flow of water runoff.
“Topography is going to play a huge role in where the water goes,” Kennedy said. “It seems like there would be so many variables, it’d be difficult to write an all-encompassing [rule].”
Cheikes suggested amending the draft bylaw to require battery energy storage system developers to reach out to nearby owners of private wells while prohibiting residents from blocking projects by refusing to provide information on their wells.
“We cannot have a bylaw where somebody, by simply not responding and not providing information, can stop a project dead,” Cheikes said.
The public hearing was continued to Tuesday, April 28, at 5:30 p.m., when the Planning Board will discuss these proposed private well conditions further and hear from residents before either solidifying a bylaw for residents to vote on at Annual Town Meeting or continuing the public hearing again.
