To meet Ontario’s growing desire for more energy, 29 acres of farmland near Port Elgin could soon become home to one of Ontario’s largest battery storage projects. “I am worried that it’s going to happen. Truly. This is where my family grew up,” says Trudy Schwass, who lives right next door to the proposed project. Neoen Canada wants to build the energy storage complex along a hydro corridor, just south of Port Elgin. It would encompass 344 lithium iron phosphate batteries and 89 transformers, to take power off the grid at times of low energy demand, and return it to the grid when energy demand is high. “I’m not denying the fact that the Province of Ontario needs these units to capture and store power for different times of power consumption. But, this is not the place for it. There’s all kinds of places that this thing can be located away from people, away from livestock, away from wildlife,” said neighbour, Eldon Thede. The loss of farmland, concerns others. “Every day in Ontario, 320 acres of farmland is lost to development. My husband and I are farmers, and we’ve farmed this land with our children. I can’t imagine not being able to farm it anymore, and pass it on to future generations,” said concerned neighbour, Linda Baumberger. Schwass said she’s concerned about what would happen if the batteries caught fire. “They claim that that will never happen. I would like to see the guarantees to prove that that is not going to happen over a 20 year span,” she said. “If a fire did occur, and it did get into the other units, you can’t put these things out. You got to let them burn out,” added Thede. Neoen said safety is its number one priority, and investments would be made to limit the chance of fire, and manage a fire, if that were to occur, which is very unlikely, they say. Neoen already has a 20 year contract with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to sell stored electricity to the grid. The company initially planned to build the battery storage complex near Tara, but moved the preferred site to Saugeen Shores, following consultation with the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, who would be 50 per cent partners in the proposed project, which still requires municipal approval in order to move forward. “I got the feeling that they’re really, really trying with everything they have to push this through. And, I hope I’m wrong that this doesn’t happen,” said Baumberger. “It’s farmland. We need our farmland. If we don’t have our farmland, we don’t get food. I don’t want my food coming from God knows where,” said Schwass. If municipal approval is granted, construction on the Neoen battery project could begin as early as next year, and be completed by 2028.
