OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP, MI -- Seven months after a renewable energy company approached township officials about building a battery storage facility, staff and elected officials haven’t reached a decision on what to do about the technology.

NewEdge Renewable Power approached the township in August 2025 about building a 260-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS) on land it leases at West M Avenue and South Van Kal Street.

The request comes as state lawmakers push for more battery storage. But township residents are afraid of potential fires and environmental disruption if battery storage comes to their backyard.

Experts from the state government and University of Michigan attended a Thursday, April 9, planning commission meeting to provide more information about battery storage technology.

Residents who spoke during public comment — many of whom have spoken out against the technology before — weren’t swayed.

“This is a rural residential area, something this size... doesn’t belong there,” said Donita DeBruin, who lives near the proposed location of the BESS facility.

To meet renewable energy goals, Michigan will need 2,500 megawatts of battery storage by 2030, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).

But the value smaller communities see in building the technology has not changed over time, said EGLE analyst Ian O’Leary.

“It’s a big ask to request an agricultural township to help us with that,” O’Leary said.

The batteries connect to power grids and charge at times when the energy available exceeds the demand. The battery could then reduce peak electricity costs when demand is high, O’Leary told planning commissioners Thursday.

“They really act to remove expensive electricity” by discharging the previously captured energy, O’Leary said.

The property NewEdge wants to build on is surrounded by agricultural and residential zoned land and borders Little Pistol Farms, an organic farm owned by Ken and Katie Schneider at 2335 S. Van Kal St.

Alistair Smith, a township planning commissioner, asked why the facilities can’t be built in the township’s industrial areas. Smith declined a request for comment from MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette.

Madeleine Krol, a clean energy land use specialist at the University of Michigan’s Graham’s Center for EmPowering Communities, said the batteries need to go where there’s still capacity on power grids.

“The big size projects ... they don’t feed into the power lines I see here in Ann Arbor. They feed into those regional huge transmission lines,” Krol said.

Farmland is also easier and cheaper to build BESS systems on.

“It’s already cleared, it’s flat, it’s available,” and less expensive than properties in more populated areas, Krol said.

To incentivize development, the state offers communities a $2,500 to $5,000 grant for every megawatt of battery storage constructed. At 260 megawatts, Oshtemo could receive $1.3 million from EGLE if it approves the facility.

Krol also acknowledged the safety risks.

The batteries can catch fire through a process called thermal runaway where the batteries overheat and catch fire or explode. If a fire does occur, different gases could be released into the environment, Krol said. But those events have become increasingly rare as the technology is further researched, she said.

“Energy storage developers, firefighters and first responders have really learned more and more how to best respond to those kinds of incidents and how to prevent them in the first place,” Krol said.

The batteries can also produce noise and be an unpleasant visual addition to the rural landscape, Krol said.

DeBruin said she can understand why developers want to build there.

“When you do the bird’s eye view and look at the map, this looks like the perfect spot,” DeBruin said. “There’s a big substation. There’s empty ground right there. It’s perfect.”

But DeBruin said she’s concerned the noise and lights from a BESS could disturb a nearby bird sanctuary, in addition to the fire safety concerns.

The township’s planning commission is developing an ordinance to regulate BESS facilities. Regardless of the ordinance, a 2023 state law allows NewEdge to seek site approval directly from the state instead, if desired.

With the land already leased and Consumers Energy “actively seeking” partnerships with clean energy developers, according to its website, Katie Schneider worries the township may be doing “too little, too late.”

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Hi there! I'm an award-winning journalist covering K-12 schools and higher education in Kalamazoo County and broader Southwest Michigan. For story inquiries and tips I can be reached at amiller2@mlive.com.