Green energy visionaries want more farmland — this time for large battery storage sites — but North Glengarry farmers are so opposed they’ve lawyered up
Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
MAXVILLE — Two legal challenges are now in the works to pull the plug on a controversial Eastern Ontario lithium battery energy storage project that is pitting farmer against farmer and residents against their local municipality.
In November 2023, in a move largely unnoticed by residents, North Glengarry Township council members voted to support the 17-megawatt project on farmland next to an existing hydro substation 18 km northeast of Maxville, as requested by the developer.
Under current provincial policy, that show of municipal support smoothed the way for the developer — Wahgoshig Solar — to secure a power supply contract with the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), a crown corporation responsible for operating the province’s bulk electrical system. A number of other rural Ontario municipalities have denied such support to Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) projects in their jurisdictions, a rejection that — though short of a veto — effectively makes it much harder for developers to win IESO approval.
Lithium ion batteries have made headlines for burning out of control if they catch fire. That includes many Tesla cars, e-bikes and battery storage facilities. While the North Glengarry project batteries are based on a reputedly safer version of lithium ion technology known as lithium iron phosphate, fires are nonetheless top of mind with opponents of the battery-storage facilities. In January, a massive blaze at a 300-megawatt California battery-storage plant — reported as the biggest such site in the world — has only stoked those concerns. About 1,500 area residents were ordered to evacuate as the fire raged for five days. A similar fire in California continued for 16 days.
It was only at the end of February of this year, when a related zoning amendment came up, that local residents took notice of the impending project and hurriedly began mobilizing against the North Glengarry project. They have complained about the 2023 demise of a strong local newspaper as a factor in their being taken by surprise so late in the game. As many as 150 people — including other farmers — lined up at a March 10 council meeting to raise fire concerns at the facility that would occupy one acre out of 15 acres the developer has leased from a farmer along Skye Road near Dunvegan. Construction is slated to begin this year.
A local dairy farmer, who asked that he remain anonymous, told Farmers Forum that he has hired a lawyer to challenge the recent rezoning to the Ontario Land Tribunal, successor to the Ontario Municipal Board. The dairy farmer contends that he should have been notified by letter of the February rezoning meeting like two other North Glengarry property owners within 120 metres of the project. He explained that he rents farmland around the affected site, which puts him within the mandated distance for notification. Following the California fire, that state is contemplating 1,000 metre setbacks from houses, schools and hospitals.
“It’s for my family, for my future, for my grandkids,” the local dairy farmer said of his appeal. He added that he’s unable to find insurance to cover his losses in that event.
He’s also part of a secondary effort involving several other farmers who have gathered several times to strategize since the testy March 10 council meeting. They’re collecting signatures and intend to challenge the project and the leaseholding farmer at Ontario’s Normal Farm Practices Board. In effect, the opposed farmers contend that the project doesn’t fit within the bounds of normal farm practice.
The local dairy farmer said he’s concerned that the project in his neighbourhood will eventually expand beyond its current proposed footprint to consume the full 15 acres that have been rezoned.
A 15-acre project could, in theory, host close to a 200-megawatt project, and you don’t have to look far to see an example on that scale already approved in the region: A 411-megawatt project, 80 km to the west, occupying 30 acres along a rural road in Edwardsburgh-Cardinal.
Ontario has recently procured over 2,700 megawatts of battery energy to store electricity taken from the grid during off-peak times, for release back into the grid when power demand is high. The battery storage projects are a follow-up to solar and wind power production, allowing that intermittent electricity to be stored for use when needed in Ontario. The province otherwise has to immediately deal with the excess electricity haphazardly produced by wind and solar, often by exporting it south of the border at a loss.
Battery storage advocates say that recovering and storing surplus electricity is cheaper than building new gas plants. But battery projects aren’t cheap, either. A recently approved 250-megawatt project in Haldimand County was reported to have a price tag of $800 million, or $3.2 million per installed megawatt. Other sources suggest substantially lower prices are now possible, but still in the multi-millions.
Meanwhile, rural groups of opponents have managed to push back BESS proposals in Prince Edward County, Napanee, North Dundas and Carleton.
