BACKYARD NY / PROJECT REGISTRY
REC #009 · STATUS: ✕ KILLED — BANNED
✕Killed

Key Capture Energy BESS — Town of Montgomery

a.k.a. KCE NY 11
North of Route 17K, between Stone Castle Road and Browns Road · Town of Montgomery · Orange County · Hudson Valley

A 20 MW battery proposal the Town of Montgomery blocked by escalating from a one-year moratorium to a permanent zoning ban on battery storage.

IMG · GOOGLE PLACES Town of Montgomery · Orange County
Sector
ENERGY-STORAGE
Location
NORTH OF ROUTE 17K, BETWEEN STONE CASTLE ROAD AND BROWNS ROAD · TOWN OF MONTGOMERY · ORANGE COUNTY · HUDSON VALLEY
Developer
KEY CAPTURE ENERGY (ALBANY, NY), VIA PROJECT COMPANY KCE NY 11 [fact sheet ›]
Capacity
20 MW
Process
MORATORIUM BANA local pause (moratorium) on new projects while rules are studied — or an outright ban. · LOCAL ZONINGLocal zoning — town/village land-use rules and special-use permits. Standalone battery storage is sited locally under home rule. · PILOT IDAPILOT / IDA — a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement granted through an Industrial Development Agency.
Source confidence
HIGHhigh — KCE NY 11 (20 MW, Key Capture Energy, Town of Montgomery, Orange County), and the moratorium-to-ban sequence with named, quoted supporters and opponents, are sourced to the developer's NYSERDA-award release and primary local reporting from the Feb 19, 2025 hearing. Medium on the exact ban ordinance's legal scope (all-BESS vs. utility-scale only) and local-law number, which rest on news characterization — the Chapter 235 zoning text on eCode360 could not be machine-fetched.
20 MW
Capacity

Background

Town of Montgomery · Orange County · Energy storage · Status: killed (zoning ban)

The project

KCE NY 11 was a 20-megawatt battery storage project from Key Capture Energy — notable as the first project awarded under NYSERDA's energy-storage incentive program in January 2020. (Key Capture Energy) By late 2022 it was in local review: an 8.03-acre site north of Route 17K between Stone Castle Road and Browns Road, aired at a Montgomery Industrial Development Agency public hearing in November 2022. (Wallkill Valley Times)

The sequence

  1. Moratorium (Nov 28, 2023): the Town Board adopted a 12-month moratorium on battery storage — extended from an initial six months to align with Governor Hochul's statewide BESS safety study. (Wallkill Valley Times)
  2. Ban (Feb 25, 2025): after a public hearing on February 19, the board voted at a special meeting to amend its zoning (Chapter 235) to prohibit battery storage, acting on former Councilwoman Kristen Brown's 2023 proposal. (Wallkill Valley Times)

The ban would block KCE NY 11; no separate withdrawal is on record.

Support and opposition

At the February 2025 hearing, Key Capture Energy's Mike Carella pointed to "unprecedented load growth" in the lower Hudson Valley, and two Cypress Creek Renewables developers spoke — Will O'Leary warning that local bans could prompt the state to take over permitting, and Eva Raczkowski arguing incidents are rare under national fire-safety standards. The board was unmoved: Supervisor Steve Brescia cited "too many unknowns" and a California incident that evacuated 1,200 people, and Councilwoman Sheryl Melick said local fire departments were not equipped for these systems. (Wallkill Valley Times)

Chronology

For it

  • Mike Carella, Senior Manager of Development, Key Capture Energy — cited 'unprecedented load growth' and more than a gigawatt of new load requests in the lower Hudson Valley [source]
    unprecedented load growth
  • Will O'Leary, Senior Project Developer, Cypress Creek Renewables — warned a local ban could push the state to bring battery-storage permitting under state control [source]
  • Eva Raczkowski, Project Developer, Cypress Creek Renewables — argued incidents are rare and facilities are designed and monitored to strict national fire-safety standards [source]

Against it

  • Kristen Brown, former Town Councilwoman — originated the ban proposal (Sept 2023), citing battery-fire danger and strain on first responders [source]
  • Supervisor Steve Brescia — 'too many unknowns,' cited a California incident that evacuated 1,200 people; felt town and state fire response were not ready [source]
    too many unknowns,
  • Councilwoman Sheryl Melick — 'I don't believe our fire departments are up to code with them... I just think it's hazardous for the residents of the town' [source]
    I don
  • Resident Don Berger (2023 moratorium hearing) — backed a full year, citing 'very limited knowledge of the negative aspects of this thing' [source]
    very limited knowledge of the negative aspects of this thing

Context — not for or against

Analysis

Montgomery is the clearest local example of the escalation a moratorium can become: a pause adopted to "buy time" while the state studied safety hardened into a permanent zoning prohibition, blocking a 20 MW project that already held the state's first storage-incentive award. The developers' own warning at the hearing — that local bans invite a state takeover of siting — is the ORES-for-storage argument stated from the industry side. The case also shows the recurring fire-safety fault line: the developer and a peer firm citing national standards and load growth, against a board that judged its emergency services unready.

Sources

// every field traceable to a primary source · outcome classified per documented record · BACKYARD NY