Fire Department not contacted for Alliant Energy solar project

During discussions of the Battery Energy Storage System project from Alliant Energy with Union County, an unexpected fact emerged: the Creston Fire Department was never contacted about the potential hazard of Alliant’s solar field.

Alliant Energy Senior Project Manager Jared Foss visited the Union County board of supervisors Wednesday to discuss the BESS update. Despite a resolution made by Union County in March limiting the ability for new solar fields to be approved, the permit approved for Alliant Energy includes a provision for a BESS expansion.

“We’re in a dire need to add more additional capacity to our system in the next coming years as we have some more large customers looking to build in Iowa,” Foss said. “They’re going to add a lot of load, or demand, on our systems.”

Supervisor Rick Friday drilled Foss with questions around safety provisions Alliant has prepared in case of an emergency. These questions outlined major concerns around any power infrastructure, including preparations for thermal runaway, fires and any environmental impact.

Foss was able to answer most questions soundly, but when the subject turned to the need for fire department response, a larger issue emerged. For procedures Foss outlined which need the support of Creston FD, the FD were unaware and claimed they have received no communication.

Creston FD Fire Chief Todd Jackson attended the meeting and clarified the issue.

“We’ve had zero contact with Alliant,” Jackson said. “We’ve had more contact with residential solar systems than Alliant and that system. I didn’t come here to press that, but that’s the fact. You talk about continuing to train, we haven’t been approached. Zero.”

Jackson made it clear how interactions between Alliant and the FD are necessary for responsible construction. Understanding how the natural world can cause unforeseen problems, Jackson still pushed for Alliant to keep the FD notified of developments so they have the ability to limit hazards and damage.

Emergencies can happen at any time, which means any means to prepare for an emergency is valuable. Preventing damage both to property and human lives are a major part of what Jackson is committed to as a fire chief.

“I’m the one at 3:00 in the morning who has to deal with this, has to deal with shutting down the railroad... it is quite costly,” Jackson said. “We’re getting close to the nursing home over there.”

Foss accepted the lack of communication with the FD and promised the board and attendees he would reach out to fix the communication issue by the end of Wednesday.

This BESS expansion will be the next move for Alliant’s solar energy project which began with an extensive solar field to the east of Creston. Across 300 acres of land, 90,000 solar panels were constructed. The field expects to generate 50 megawatts of power at peak capacity.

Incorporating a BESS addition to the existing utility scale solar energy system is a statewide movement for Alliant as they try what Foss referred to as a “holistic” approach to expanding. The Creston solar field is one area in Iowa where a BESS addition would create a large impact on power generation.

Alliant will move forward on the project with construction over the summer and a goal to be online by the end of the year. Some updated numbers were given to the board. The capacity of the BESS will increase to 40 MW from the original permit of 25 MW with the same amount of land, 7 acres, allocated. Containers will increase from 32 to 56. These battery containers Foss described as about the size of a semi container.

Foss noted this increase in generation is due to rapidly evolving technology, with more energy being created and stored in smaller containers. The BESS will operate using lithium iron phosphate cells, noted by Foss to be the same material used for most cell phone batteries.

“It is a bunch of little batteries - like what you’d have in your cell phone - packaged into a briefcase,” Foss said. “That briefcase is sealed, it’s all steel, metal. You have multiples of these packs that are inside one individual container, inside of one semi truck container. You’re able to monitor the different voltages across that.”

Supervisor Dennis Hopkins reiterated his concerns around how much the solar project was going to cost the average taxpayer. Foss wasn’t able to give a concrete answer on any tax payments nor how much state benefits would be going to the county.

“That’s where I struggle,” Hopkins said. “I struggle with going ahead and approving stuff when we have no idea how it affects us. It’d be like going to buy a car, having a banker loan me the money and say just tell me the interest rate later on, how much will it cost me?”