LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Rosalind Hayes moved to the Skye Canyon community in the northwest valley more than a year ago. She loves that it's a new and safe place where her family could put down roots.
"It's a nice neighborhood, it's fairly new, and it's safe," Hayes said.
But Hayes is now questioning that feeling of safety after learning Clearway Energy Group is looking to build a new 43-acre lithium-ion battery storage facility not far from her home.
I spoke with her and other local residents to understand their concerns:
"Walking distance...I don't want to live near a facility where I feel like it could blow up at any time," Hayes said. "I don't want it close to my house."
Hayes is not alone. Local resident Jeff Siekmeier says he's concerned for the health and safety of his neighbors if a fire were to ever break out in the facility.
"It poses a health question for everybody.... Their closest responding station to that would be station 46, which is out in Skye Canyon. It's only got one engine and one EMS unit," Siekmeier said.
For neighbors like Hayes and Siekmeier, those fears are hard to ignore after recent incidents involving lithium batteries happened around the valley.
Nearly two months ago, a lithium battery fire was reported at Townsite Solar in Boulder City after two Tesla Megapack battery units ignited.
You may also remember the large lithium fire near Baker, California, which broke out on July 27, 2024. During that instance, a semi truck carrying lithium batteries crashed and burned, causing days-long traffic backups along the I-15.
"Safety is the number one priority for Clearway," Feldman said.
Louis Feldman is the senior director for Clearway Energy. He tells me this system could help ensure grid reliability and stabilize the cost of power for Las Vegas families and businesses by better matching energy supply and demand on the grid.
He says the 400 MW energy storage facility has the capability to store excess power when production exceeds demand, and then deploy it when demand rises throughout the day.
"It really provides low-cost energy where we could fill the batteries with solar resources when there's low cost during the day and be able to dispatch to communities' needs in the evenings," Feldman said.
Clearway said the proposed site is ideal because it is land already used for energy infrastructure. It is located directly south of the existing NV Energy Northwest Substation and adjacent to NV Energy’s planned transmission expansion – all of which are being developed to serve growing demand in the region.
"We do extensive due diligence to find the safest solution," Feldman said.
When asked about the facility's fire safety mechanisms, Feldman explained the safety features.
"The site is fully kind of autonomous. Like there's remote shutoff that will alert the fire department, and we isolate the system and completely close it off if there's an event," Feldman said.
Clearway adds that, "On top of the rigorous compliance with all codes and standards that apply to the highly-regulated energy system, there are a number of factors that go into ensuring community safety throughout the process of designing batteries, operating the facilities, and emergency response and training onsite and with the local fire department. Starting with the battery chemistry: Aoki will use Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, which is a proven chemistry that is more thermally stable than the battery chemistry used in recently reported fires. Aoki batteries are also housed in modular, container-based design, which limits the potential for any issues to spread. (We recognize that folks have cited reports of fires in Nevada and California, and it’s important to know that the proposed Aoki energy center is distinct in chemistry from both those incidents, and its modular design is distinct from the California incident. In that incident, the older batteries were housed in a “warehouse” style single enclosure that did not prevent the spread from one unit to the other.) This is all coupled with our 24/7 system monitoring. Beyond the design, we also work extensively to coordinate early with the local fire department, with whom we’ve already worked with ensure they understand the technology and proper response procedures.:"
Still, residents I spoke with say the facility is too much of a risk.
"If they can move the project somewhere else would be great... away from residents because it's a huge risk," Hayes said.
Clearway Energy plans to present the project to the City of Las Vegas Planning Commission on January 13.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.