Dec. 23—A hearing officer recommends the Santa Fe County Planning Commission deny a proposal to build a massive solar and battery storage development south of the city, citing a “potential hazard for fire, panic, or other danger.”
It was a modest win for many residents of Eldorado and San Marcos who have assailed the proposed Rancho Viejo Solar project and organized opposition.
Marilyn Hebert, the hearing officer assigned to Virginia-based AES Corp.’s application for a county permit, wrote in an order Monday, “The scale of the Project, over 200,000 panels and 570,000 lithium-ion batteries, together with the proximity to residential communities with homes as close [as] 500 feet from the Site boundary creates an unreasonable risk to the safety and welfare of the communities.”
AES Corp. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hebert’s written order, following a hearing earlier this month, comes before the county Planning Commission is set to consider the proposal Feb. 3. It also comes as the solar project continues to stoke heated opposition from communities near the site, largely over concerns about fire risks at a lithium-iron battery storage facility.
“This risk is compounded by the distance of these areas from County fire fighting stations, none of which has a hazardous material team,” Hebert wrote in the order. “The evidence indicates the Project would be detrimental to the health, safety and general welfare of the area.”
She added, “Residents of the surrounding communities, all zoned rural residential, expressed fear that the Project would negatively affect their home values and ability to obtain home insurance, if such insurance would be available at any cost.”
The project’s supporters say the facility could play a role in the state’s efforts to slow climate change and would be an economic win for the region. An outside expert found the risk of fires from lithium-ion batteries is rare, and AES says its internal estimates show the probability of a fire at a battery storage facilities to be “less than one in every 3,000 plant lifetimes.” But people who live in neighborhoods south of the city have turned up in numbers in an attempt to defeat the ambitious development.
Even if the Planning Commission approves the permit, opponents can file an appeal, kicking the decision to county commissioners. A decision by the commission can also be appealed in court.
For the project’s opponents, Hebert’s order hit on many of their concerns.
“Well, I’m gratified that someone at the county has finally heard us because her arguments for denying are pretty much the arguments that we made at the hearing,” said Lee Zlotoff, president of the Clean Energy Coalition of Santa Fe County, a group with about 1,200 members who oppose the project.
“It seems to us at CEC this is pretty common sense. You don’t put a potentially dangerous facility with all the dangers enumerated by the hearing officer here in the middle of three communities three miles south of a major population center in the state of New Mexico,” Zlotoff said.
Aiming to generate 96 megawatts of power and roughly 45 megawatts of battery storage, the project would cover 680 acres of a roughly 800-acre parcel and include a solar facility, a 1-acre collector substation, a 3-acre battery storage system and a 2.3-mile generation line about four miles east of La Cienega, according to the county’s website.