BY CRAIG FREILICH

North Country This Week

POTSDAM -- The Town of Potsdam plans to adopt a local law to put in place a six-month moratorium on battery storage installations for solar and other electrical generators so they can develop and implement revised code provisions.

The town board’s resolution, adopted March 10, notes that “there has been increasing local interest in alternative energy sources resulting in the installation of Battery Energy Storage Systems for the purpose of storing energy for sale to third-parties produced by Solar Systems and other alternative energy sources,” and they want time to devise code provisions to deal with the possible “undesirable impacts to neighboring properties and/or the Town” before they accept any applications for such systems.

“The Board recognizes the need to evaluate the impacts of these systems and, if necessary, revise the Town’s Zoning Law to address any determined issues,” the resolution says.

The vote established a hearing date of April 14 at 6:30 p.m., prior to the board’s next regular meeting, for discussion of the local law.

This is similar to the moratorium on large solar installations that the town imposed while it developed code provisions that addressed the concerns about the effects of such systems in the town.

Potsdam and other towns have been dealing with the surge in applications for larger solar systems, and now, with the desire of such systems to be able to store power for times when the solar arrays aren’t generating electricity, to consider the effects of the large battery installations.

The Town of Canton has instituted a similar moratorium to allow them to bring their code up to date.

“’Battery Energy Storage System’ shall mean one or more devices, assembled together, capable of storing energy in order to supply electric energy at a future time, not to include a stand-alone 12-volt car battery or an electric motor vehicle,” the proposed local says.

“For the period of six months immediately following the effective date of this Local law, the Town Board, the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Building Department, and the Zoning Administrator shall not permit or approve any application for the installation of any Battery Energy Storage Systems. This Moratorium shall apply to all currently pending and future applications for the installation of Battery Energy Storage Systems,” the proposed law would say.

Attorney Kevin Murphy of the Wladis Law Firm, who handled legal aspects of the town’s solar installation code provisions, will be working on the new storage battery code section.