The developer of the major Ripley solar project is fighting town officials over the proposed battery storage.

Doug Bowen is the supervisor for the town of Ripley and the chairman of the Chautauqua County Planning Board. During this week’s planning board meeting, he gave an update on the 270 megawatt solar project and 20 MW battery storage in South Ripley.

He noted the state Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) has reviewed the completed the application for the project. That triggered an environmental review.

According to Bowen, the Administrative Judge came to Ripley about a month ago for a public hearing. Afterward, the Ripley Town Board held a special workshop and drafted a compliance letter, which was submitted to the state.

The administrative judge scheduled oral arguments over Ripley’s Battery Energy Storage Systems law. “The developer has requested the zoning requirements be waived for the project and the judge wanted additional information so he scheduled an oral arguments session,” he said.

Those oral arguments took place Wednesday morning. “The developer put forward their case, ORES put forward their case, the town of Ripley spoke on why they feel that the zoning law should be followed, and then there was rebuttal arguments back and forth,” Bowen explained at the meeting.

Bowen said the administrative judge has three options: waive Ripley’s zoning law, mandate that Ripley’s zoning law must be followed and the battery storage won’t be allowed, or the judge will request hearings in writing as to why not allowing the energy storage component would be detrimental to the project. “We’ll see where that moves forward,” he said.

Bowen was unable to give a timeline on when the administrative judge will make a ruling.

He called the hearing “a good discussion” on both sides. “ORES put forward strong arguments, the developer put forward strong arguments, and our attorney put forward strong arguments,” Bowen said.

There was also an attorney representing the Ripley Fire Department as well. “The vocal members don’t want to see the energy storage component go forward,” Bowen said.

Bowen noted the town passed a Battery Energy Storage Systems law in June which does not permit large scale energy storage. “The developer’s argument is that law came into effect after the full application was deemed complete. Our attorney is arguing that we are still in the process of reviewing things. They can still submit information to be reviewed,” he said.

According to Bowen, Ripley’s zoning code did not allow energy storage systems to begin with. The updated zoning permits residential size battery storage only.

Because the zoning code didn’t permit battery storage to begin with, Bowen feels it should be prohibited. “We have specific language in our zoning law that if a use is not listed, it’s not allowed,” he said.

According to Bowen, the Office of Renewable Siting does not cover energy storage, regardless of size of the project. “It’s completely town reviewed and town approved,” he said.

Bowen was asked if the battery component was required for the project to move forward. “It depends who you ask,” he replied. “My personal opinion is yeah, they would go forward without it.”

Planning board member Melissa Meyers said she attended a training session regarding battery storage and learned that some communities that have authorized battery storage regretted it because the batteries make noise. “Solar is one thing, the battery storage is a different animal,” she said.

Bowen noted how the entire project has been controversial since the beginning. “There are those who have attacked me personally, on a personal level, because I’m not fighting against this. Personally, I’m not necessarily in favor of the project, but I take my personal feelings out of it and try to move forward for what’s best for the community,” he said.

In the end, Bowen noted the state is going to make the final decision whether to approve the project to go forward.

If it does go forward, the town will bernefit financially. “The one item that the town had control over was the revenue stream. So we pushed hard when we negotiated the host community agreement, which in the agreement, beginning in year one the town will be getting a million dollars through year 11 and there’s a 3% escalation clause after that ,” he said.

Bowen said the fire department and others have objected to the possibility of contamination and explosions with the battery storage.