For all our environmental talk, Washington is a laggard when it comes to action. Washington ranks an embarrassing 50th out of 50 states for clean energy growth. And as historic wildfires continue to rage across Washington, it’s clear to anyone who breathes air that we need to do more to fight climate change, and we need to do it as quickly as possible. That means building out not just solar and wind farms, but also grid-scale batteries to store energy for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. To get batteries built on the timeline that climate change requires, city governments must lead the way and welcome clean energy in our backyards.
As Washington grapples with the challenges of building clean energy infrastructure and bringing communities along, it’s helpful to look at places that have been successful. For example, Chattanooga, Tenn., has been building out batteries for grid resilience, with approximately zero backlash from local communities. In speaking with leaders from Chattanooga, public trust emerges as a critical ingredient. My friend Tim Kelly, Chattanooga’s mayor, says that Chattanooga’s city-owned utility, EPB, has earned the trust of the community over decades. Mayor Kelly said, “We work really hard to gain the public trust and keep it. That’s a really important piece of how we’re able to get stuff done without a lot of hullabaloo.”
Public trust isn’t unique to Chattanooga. Surveys consistently show that Americans trust local governments more than other levels of government. City governments can build on that trust by being proactive on clean energy. We can lead by seeking out collaborative developers to build locally beneficial projects, rather than simply reacting to projects that show up on our doorstep. We already know where the substations in our communities are. We can intentionally set a vision, say, “here’s a type of project we would welcome in our community,” and find a developer to build it. Issaquah’s climate action plan specifically highlights “renewable energy and battery storage projects that benefit the community” as a critical climate action. It will take proactive work to find a project that has direct community benefits, beyond just regional emissions reduction.
Issaquah already has a transmission substation that could be an optimal location for a grid-scale battery. It has eight transmission lines going in and out, has several acres of bare dirt where batteries could be installed without cutting any trees, and is over half a mile from any residential areas. But it’s also located within the Tradition Plateau Natural Resource Conservation Area on Tiger Mountain, a beloved forested hiking destination. There are no “perfect” locations. But the Lake Tradition substation is as good a location as any, and forests are far more threatened by climate change than by the presence of electrical infrastructure.
Since no developers or land deals are in motion yet, Issaquah has the opportunity to define a battery energy storage system on our own terms. Instead of passing a battery moratorium, we can proactively enact commonsense regulations, like requiring best practices for fire safety (NFPA 855), training for the local fire department and financial responsibility for developers. Instead of waiting for a heavy-handed developer to present a proposal and reacting to that proposal, we can identify substations within the city that are good candidates for big batteries, and actively solicit a collaborative developer who will provide community benefits, like installing batteries at Issaquah’s resilience hubs to support vulnerable residents during power outages.
Defining thoughtful guardrails and sourcing a good project will take intentional effort. For decades, the environmental movement’s primary strategy was to slow down harmful projects. In the age of climate change, we need to switch gears and accelerate good projects. That means having a vision and doing the work to create a project we can say “yes” to. That takes hard work, and I invite local elected leaders from around the state to join me in that work.
