Surry County supervisors voted unanimously on April 3 to approve a zoning ordinance amendment that would allow battery storage facilities.

Dendron District Supervisor Amy Drewry was absent.

The draft language began last year with a request by Idaho-based Clenera, which wants to build a 20-acre facility capable of storing up to 320 megawatt hours of electricity off White Marsh Road. The language would add “battery energy storage system” as a defined “civic use” allowed in agricultural-rural or industrial-zoned parcels by conditional use permit.

“This was drafted for any project that comes to the county with the county’s general interest in mind,” said Scott Foster, an attorney representing Clenera. “This is based on the ordinances that are on the books that were created by other jurisdictions.”

Board Chairman Robert Elliott said the vote approves only the ordinance that would allow Clenera to apply for a conditional use permit. The company would still have to submit a permit application per the terms of the adopted ordinance for its specific project.

The adopted version of the ordinance includes several changes from the version Clenera had initially proposed. 

Among the changes is language that would allow the county to impose, on an as-needed basis via conditional use permits, stricter setbacks than the minimum buffers specified. The draft ordinance currently mandates projects in agricultural-rural zoning be set back at least 200 feet from all property lines except those that abut industrial-zoned land, and be at least 500 feet from all residential and commercial structures. Battery storage facilities in M-1 or M-2 industrial zoning must be at least 75 feet from all property lines.

That’s double the 100-foot minimum setback neighboring Prince George County requires in the battery storage ordinance it adopted in 2022.

The ordinance also mandates a minimum 25-foot non-combustible buffer between the fence surrounding the project and the required landscaping to mitigate the chance of a forest fire if one of the battery units overheated. 

In early 2024 Surry supervisors approved a new “emerging technologies” zoning district and rezoned roughly 600 acres for Middleburg-based Green Energy Partners’ proposed first-in-the-nation combination hydrogen fuel hub and data center powered by small, modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs. That zoning district already allows battery storage but doesn’t impose local regulations specific to the arrays of shipping container-sized batteries that have become controversial for their fire risk.

Each battery unit would consist of individual cells that get placed into modules that are stored in racks similar to server towers at a data center. Those racks and a battery management system programmed to keep the units at an acceptable temperature then get placed into the final outdoor unit.

The ordinance mandates battery units include fire suppression technology compliant with the latest standards developed by the National Fire Protection Association.

The preparedness of the county’s career and volunteer firefighters and the potential noise the batteries would generate were among the concerns raised during a same-day public hearing that preceded the vote. The noise from battery storage systems is typically from the cooling systems used on individual battery units, according to an Acoustical Society of America study.

Mike Eggleston, one of five speakers, questioned whether the batteries would be lithium ion-powered, referencing media reports of floodwaters from Hurricane Helene causing electric vehicles to burst into flames last year. According to a CBS News report, there were 48 confirmed lithium ion battery fires in Florida related to Helene, 11 involving electric vehicles.

Shalom Pierce said she supported the project, but questioned the wisdom of adopting an ordinance at the request of and partially written by a developer.

None of the speakers explicitly said they opposed the ordinance, though one speaker, Susan Corvello, urged the supervisors to defer action until after they’d visited a battery storage site to observe for themselves the visibility and noise level. County Attorney Lola Perkins said she’s trying to arrange a trip to a battery site in Chesterfield County.

The ordinance would cap noise levels at 65 decibels at the property line, and at 55 decibels as measured at the outer wall of any occupied structure on an adjacent parcel. The limit is slightly higher than the 60-decibel limit at adjoining property lines specified in Prince George’s ordinance but lower than the 72-decibel limit Clenera initially proposed. Clenera representatives said they’re confident their project can meet the stated 65- and 55-decibel limits.

Clenera says battery storage arrays increase the reliability of the power grid amid rising demand for electricity, which a Dec. 9 Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee, or JLARC, report to the General Assembly says is being driven by the proliferation of data centers. Ed Rumler of Clenera told the supervisors the batteries would charge during periods of low demand, such as the early morning hours, and send out the stored power when there’s high demand, which typically occurs between 5-7 p.m.

“These are in demand not just because of being paired with solar projects, which is common, but for a host of other uses for the electrical grid as standalone resources,” Rumler said.

The specific project Clenera has proposed for Surry would not be paired with a solar farm.

In addition to the power grid reliability boost, Clenera estimates its Surry site would generate $4.9 million in tax revenue for the county over 20 years.