The Proposed Fergus Battery Energy Storage System

Craig: we're going back to our roots here in tour in toronto. in ontario?

Jon: ontario. yeah.

Craig: and we've got some special proposed battery energy storage system in fergus, ontario. what's happening?

Jon: yeah. so, there's a two hundred fifty megawatt battery energy storage system that's been proposed for fergus by portland's energy center gp. and so the project aims to support the integration of renewable energy into the grid and enhance grid stability. some key points here to think about is the project's gonna be located on a four hectare site, and it would consist of approximately a hundred and eighty battery containers and sixty inverter transformer skids. so the system's designed to store excess energy during off peak hours and release it during peak demand periods. now the problem with this, there's some there's some community concerns that the proposal raised. so first off, there's there's some safety issues. so fire risks associated with lithium ion batteries are a primary concern, obviously. questions about the adequacy of local emergency services to handle potential incidents, which that's it. that's interesting. well, we can come back to that and talk about that. environmental impact, obviously. so worries about potential soil and groundwater contamination, rightfully so. concerns about projects proximity to the grand river watershed, so that's all in one. and then infrastructure strain. so potential impacts on local roads and traffic during construction and operation and questions about capacity of local utilities to support such a large scale project. at the end of the day, this is just a big battery storage system. my question is, do we really have that much excess energy that we need to store it? are we really producing that much excess energy?

Craig: just pulled up the map here so you can see approximately where it is, in relation to fergus as we're talking about the concerns. well, here's the thing. right? like, if you've been watching the news, australia is having problems. i guess it was south australia who went green and with solar and wind. yeah. and during the evening and whatnot, they're just not getting enough power, so they're starting to use more coal and, you know, relying on other parts of australia to feed them power, because they don't have enough storage like this. we've talked about solutions for evening, like, beaming power down from the sun or even reflecting solar arrays, down from satellites. so yeah. i could, you know solar energy down from the sun. we're talking about satellites either beaming energy or reflecting light down to solar farms, so they'll be active all night. so we continue to have a problem where these current technology can't support everyone twenty four hours a day, and so you need these types of storage units. the question is, how much do you need? and that's why they're doing, like, what we talked about before where they're what were those, the carbon ones that are the big domes? the

Jon: the the lands the land energy storage?

Craig: yeah.

Jon: yeah.

Craig: so these are all different types of energy storage that you're trying right now to figure out what it has the best impact and what they can do. so, you know, in places like california, australia, large care, scale battery storage has been instrumental in stabilizing their energy grids and reducing reliance on fossil fuels and providing backups during outages. like, south, i think australia, south wales, whatever it is, they've just, got one of tesla's big battery thing, but it can only

Jon: run battery. yeah.

Craig: but what they've got can only run for about twenty minutes, run the what it's supposed to cover. okay. so that assumes everything goes out, i guess. so the question becomes things like this, and different ways of doing these storage are required. we don't know which ones are gonna be the best effective long term, and whether, you know, what kind of, impact they're gonna have. with an expected capacity of several megawatts, this facility is poised to significantly impact the local energy landscape. for sure. you know? so yeah. i'm really excited about these kinds of things because this is what enables us to go more green until, you know, we get nuclear everywhere, and that's gonna take a long time. so, you know, we need these different energy solutions. the question is, is this one safe? are there other concerns around it?

Jon: well, i think a concern that i didn't even think about was, yeah, can the emergency services handle this? yeah. like, i didn't even think about that until i read this article. but that makes total sense because it's gonna be a different kind of fire. and do they have the training to do it? because we're not talking about a laptop battery fire now. we're talking about a facility fire that could yeah. and so, that is an interesting point to bring up for sure.

Craig: absolutely. and whose onus is it on? when something like this happens, whose onus is it on to bring the local infrastructure and support up to speed so they have the tools, and whose responsibility is to keep it up? is it because this feels like a public private. this is ontario energy and a few other people trying to go this. so who's responsible to say, okay. fire, police, whatnot. here's your training. here's your tools. here's all the tech and the foam and whatever you need when fire or something breaks out here, and who's responsible for paying that long term.

Jon: yeah. exactly. yeah. so, like, i don't know. i don't i i i really don't see how this is going to help too much. i don't think it i don't see how it would have a big impact. i think if we're talking net impact, in my opinion, it's gonna have a more negative impact.

Craig: now why would you say that it'll have a negative impact?

Jon: because of the volatility of lithium ion technology. so they're they're they're putting this facility in and storing it for many, many years. like, it's not like i don't know. they probably have things in place. it's just i didn't see, i didn't read anywhere where, like, they're talking about how they mitigate and, and all that sort of stuff. and i get it. lithium ion is the current battery technology, but there's there there are other alternatives to storing energy that we've talked about that we've covered, and i'm curious as to why they're not exploring those.

Craig: well, lithium ion is a proven technology. from a storage and retrieval point of view, there is some loss involved in that. but, yeah, we've seen iron air. we've seen c o two batteries, which are the ones i was talking about before. we've seen a bunch of different types

Jon: of things.

Craig: air storage. yeah. absolutely. and, we've seen a bunch, and we've talked about a bunch on this and on the feature tech. so they're going with this because it's the proposed, technology right now. but, the question is when we get a new battery technology that we like that works, how easy is it to transition to that?

Jon: yeah. the other thing too is the reason why i say the negative impact is because, like, you've got these batteries, but you don't have batteries that are sitting stagnant on the ground, for long periods of time. like, you've got batteries that are driving around. you got batteries and all that sort of stuff.

Craig: but you assume, you know, these will be the whole point of this is with, the green energy yeah. they're not gonna be, just sitting there. they're gonna be feeding the grid during low power times and in the evenings when the green energy is not available. so they will be in constant use.

Jon: no. i don't mean not constant use. i just mean the potential for seepage into the ground and all that sort of stuff. that's what i'm worried about.

Craig: yeah. indeed. i think there's some concern there. so what do you think out there? does this sound like a good solution? if you're in ontario, would you want something like this near your home? you know? how can we strike the balance between necessary energy innovation and local community interest? as we chart a course for sustainable energy, can we have our cake and eat it too, or will we have to compromise? let us know what your thoughts are and what technologies are we missing on this. we'd love to hear about it, both what's available now and what's coming in the future.