SolarBank Corporation of Toronto, a company that focuses on renewable energy like solar and wind, wants to put a lithium battery energy storage system (BESS) in Armour Township, near Burk's Falls.
Specifically, it wants the storage system located at 219 Peggs Mountain Rd.
SolarBank has taken the first step by completing an application to have the township’s Official Plan and Zoning By-law amended to accommodate the BESS.
As part of this process, SolarBank has submitted reports and studies to the municipality to support its application.
Charlene Watt, Armour’s clerk, says the next step is for the municipality to find qualified organizations, like engineering firms, that can review these reports and studies and deem them satisfactory.
If the municipality identifies concerns in the documents, SolarBank may have to submit more information, Watt said. Getting from the initial amendment applications to when the BESS can be located on Peggs Mountain Road is a lengthy process and “it won’t be quick,” she told members of the public and council members at their Jan. 28 meeting.
During that meeting, Mayor Rod Ward said misinformation is being spread on Facebook regarding the SolarBank application.
“I’ve read a few times on Facebook that this has been approved,” Ward said. “This has not been approved. The application has been received and we have a lot of work to do.”
Ward asked the public not to “get pulled into the quagmire of misinformation.”
Council wants to ensure it’s making a rational decision on the project, he said, and it’s one reason why the township is having experts go over the SolarBank reports and studies.
The Ontario Government has been pushing battery storage systems and Armour Township is one of the first municipalities in Ontario to deal with such a project from a planning perspective, Ward added.
Once SolarBank’s supporting documents are considered satisfactory, council will formally consider the application to amend the Official Plan and Zoning By-law, Watt said.
Assuming council supports the application, then the township’s municipal planner will draft the Official Plan and Zoning By-law amendments which would be followed by a notice where people and agencies can submit their comments on the matter.
Those comments can be sent by email, regular mail, or speaking directly at a public meeting on the BESS and the comments can be either in support or against SolarBank’s application.
If council refuses SolarBank’s application the energy company can appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal and it’s this body that would then rule for or against the application.
Watt says it’s not known when the public meeting can be scheduled, but she says public participation at that meeting is important.
That meeting would include the planner’s report, comments from agencies, public comments the township receives ahead of the meeting, plus public comments for or against the project made at the meeting itself.
SolarBank could be asked questions from the council at the meeting.
Council has the option to defer deciding for the township to receive more information, it can deny the application or approve it.
When the town council makes its decision, a notice will be mailed out within 15 days announcing the decision and anyone who was part of the process to that point has 20 days to appeal the council's decision.
Another process that must take place is SolarBank has to go through the local planning board to create new lots at 219 Peggs Mountain Rd. in addition to fulfilling other technical requirements.
If the planning board supports SolarBank’s application then the company has to meet conditions as set out by the township.
The main condition is creating a site plan agreement which ensures that SolarBank’s development is built and maintained as proposed.
Once this condition is met, SolarBank can get a building permit.
According to Watt, the SolarBank proposal calls for the installation of nine units and the company would have a lease on the site until 2047.
The batteries would store power from the grid and release it when there’s a demand for more energy. The BESS has enough capacity to provide daily energy to the Town of Fergus, Watt said, which had a population of nearly 21,000 people according to the 2016 Census.
No one would be on-site at the BESS Armour site and it would be monitored out of Belleville, Watt added.
One resident at the council meeting had heard stories that fires involving lithium battery storage units are difficult to put out and Watt says they can’t be extinguished using traditional firefighting techniques like water.
The Armour Township website has information from SolarBank covering several areas of concern.
The Armour website lists categories like an emergency response plan, a hazard mitigation analysis and fire department training schedule although no schedule had been posted as of the end of January.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.