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Battery storage facility in Nipomo nearly completed

January 26, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

A 100 megawatt battery storage facility is slated to open next month in Nipomo. Caballero Energy Storage plans to store energy in lithium-ion batteries.

Initially proposed and owned by PG&E, Apha Omega Power recently acquired the facility located near Joshua Street approximately 1,000 feet from Highway 101.

Caballero Energy Storage is slated to provide enough energy to power over 100,000 homes for up to four hours daily during peak electricity demand periods. The plan is to charge the batteries when energy demand and prices are lower — such as solar generation during daylight hours — and then send the power to the grid during peak demand.

In the aftermath of a raging fire earlier this month at a battery storage facility in Moss Landing, Assemblywoman Dawn Addis introduced legislation that if passed will require future battery storage facilities to be located at least 3,200 feet from sensitive places like homes, schools and medical facilities.

While the legislation will likely halt plans for a proposed 600-megawatt battery storage facility in Morro Bay, it appears it will have no impact on the Caballero Energy Storage in Nipomo.

 


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1000 ft Northwest of Hwy 101 and just slightly farther from the 166 interchange…let me count the number of days the prevailing winds DON’T blow in that direction. That effectively closes the only transportation/evacuation route WHEN, not IF, there is a battery fire. That plume closes the 101, 166 and coats the Santa Maria riverbed on its way to the folks in Santa Maria, as well as all the agriculture in the valley all the way to Santa Barbara.


The folks in Moss Landing might have a thing or two to share about their adventures with the Vistra plant fires and the evacuations due to the plume of toxic, heavy metal laden smoke blowing their way. The Elkhorn Slough and estuary is now covered with elevated levels of heavy metal contamination.


Thank God we got rid of that nasty Unocal stuff and replaced it with the Green wave of the future….


1

I don’t think any deep pocket company will own these yet? On with the experiment in Nipomo.


0

And to think those Bay Area refugees in the Monarch development were distracted by dune buggies at Oceano Dunes and that BS about silica. You can thank Bruce Gibson and Jimmy Paulding for that slight of hand.


29

Couldn’t find anything from PG&E, or whoever owns it now, about the cost of this facility, other than costing 300-400$ per kilowatt hour per battery. There are at least 128 batteries on-site. I could find no manufacture, construction, nor maintenance costs for the facility. As near as I can figure, this site cost PG&E customers half a billion dollars, just for the kilowatt hours allegedly to be provided per battery.


No doubt, building the place cost as much.


For only 4 hours during peak use times when the grid may or may not be overwhelmed. If the batteries do not kick in, you’re still paying for them. And if they do kick in, you’re paying for them twice.


Oh. If (when?) this one catches fire, all the water used to fight it, will drain directly to the Santa Maria river, and then to the ocean, carrying whatever toxins and poisons created.


PG&E is putting up about a dozen of these battery storage sites, and many private companies are building more. The claim, is that these batteries “will only store clean and green produced energy, from wind and solar, that taste like strawberry lollipops and vanilla ice cream”. I may have paraphrased a little.


Yeah, not my words though: https://exencell.com/blogs/bess-costs-analysis-understanding-the-true-costs-of-battery-energy-storage-systems


These things are exploding and burning all around us, but the same people who are anti-nuke, fervently support these neighborhood toxic bombs.


40

You are wrong about the water used to fight the fire draining to the Santa Maria river and so on. The one thing the Moss Landing battery fire told us is when this facility catches fire the fire department will not use and water on it, the know the only option is to just let it burn itself out


8

Since you have done no research into the Nipomo bomb site, I’ll let you in on a secret: It’s packed with WATER spray and flood systems to combat fire, as per state and federal requirements. Since the site is uphill from the river….that’s where the run-off will go, and then flow towards the Guadalupe lake area to be used again on crops.


Moss Landing didn’t use water, because that flow would go directly into the incredibly sensitive Elkhorn Slough. As it is, the associated heavy metals of the batteries, have already been found in extreme concentrates there, due to the built in water suppression system flowing downhill to the sea.


6

You don’t understand how the batteries work. The don’t kick in as a backup supply they become part of the supply. Excess energy on the grid is either stored for our use later or SOLD to other states.

Yes, FD need to adapt to handle chemical fires with EV on roads.


10

I think I do know how they work, and since the state is rife with loss of grid power (just ask the North county), and rolling blackouts, not to mention that California is the largest IMPORTER of electricity in the nation (over 25%), I find it hard to believe any juice from these batteries will go anywhere past our borders. Actually, I found no source about selling our lack of energy to anyone.


3

Actually the Ca grid use of solar was the reason you didn’t have rolling blackouts this year nearly as severe as years prior. Because of lack of storage we sold off solar power generated in CA to AZ this year. Google more you’ll find it.


0

“power over 100,000 homes for up to four hours daily”

Is this a joke?… when will someone holler April fools?…


30

“up to four hours daily” as long as no one turns on the A/C or uses their washing machine. Then the run time is cut to 23 minutes unless supplemented by rainbows and unicorn p*ss.


27

Or plug in their Tesla…


5

Well, it’s not in my backyard. Carry on.


1