Morgan County Commissioners: Special use permit approved for solar battery energy storage system

The first item in the public hearing section of Tuesday morning’s Morgan County Commissioners meeting was about a special use permit for South Platte Solar, LLC to allow the construction and operation of an up to 250-megawatt battery energy storage system.

There were no public comments for or against it, which led to the item being approved 3-0 by the commissioners.

The storage system is a part of the South Platte Solar project that was approved in May.

The area of the future system is zoned for agriculture production but is not located in a fire district.

“The general purpose of the project is to maximize energy production from available solar resources,” said Planning and Zoning Director, Nichole Hay. “To deliver renewable electricity to both power transmission systems. To serve the needs of electric utilities and their customers.”

Nathan Keiser, who is a project manager with NextEra Energy Resources, is co-managing the project and provided specifics of the project.

Keiser said NextEra has worked in Colorado for over 15 years and currently has 16 projects currently operating. He said this project will be constructed on 20 acres of private land owned by Charles E. Ross in the Brush area, and construction could start next summer, with it possibly being up and running in June 2026.

“I think it’s an exciting project,” Keiser said. “Battery storage is going to become a lot more prevalent. It’s just the beginning.”

Commissioner Gordon Westhoff told Keiser he and Commissioner Mark Arndt attended training at Northeastern Junior College a few years ago that was put on by local energy companies where a question was asked about what happens in case a fire breaks out at one of the storage systems. Westhoff asked that question to Keiser.

Keiser responded that in the unlikely event of a fire, the procedure is to isolate that container from the others.

“The way batteries are designed is there’s not a lot of combustible material in it,” Keiser said.

Keiser said along with limited amounts of combustible materials in the battery, the area it’s set to be built on isn’t surrounded by combustible material either, so a fire would have nowhere to go. Westhoff asked Keiser if officials at NextEra would be willing to contact and work with the Fort Morgan and Brush Fire Departments to provide fire training for NextEra employees. Keiser said company officials already have plans to meet with both departments.

One condition Arndt added to the motion was that the company work with both fire departments to get official documentation from both departments as to whether they were willing to annex more land into their respective fire districts to include the storage system or deny annexing land. If it happens to be the latter, Arndt assumed other arrangements would be made between one of the departments and NextEra.

The next commissioners’ meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 19 in the assembly room in the Administration Building, 231 Ensign St.

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