A ~300 MW battery storage proposal that the Town of Plattekill blocked — first with a six-month moratorium, then a town-wide ban on large-scale storage.
Plattekill · Ulster County · Energy storage · Status: killed (town-wide ban)
A ~300-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS) proposed by Mission Clear Energy, to be built on 40 acres subdivided from a larger 95-acre parcel at Camp Sunset Road and Rabbit Run Road in the Town of Plattekill. At that scale it would have been one of the larger storage projects in the mid-Hudson Valley, the kind of grid-scale storage contemplated by New York's climate plan. (Southern Ulster Times)
Plattekill is one of only ~10 New York jurisdictions whose restriction carries "ALL_BESS" scope — barring battery storage regardless of size — per the statewide tracker. (Carina Energy) The project never reached a SEQRA review or a site-plan vote; the town amended its zoning to prohibit large-scale storage outright.
The safety concerns the board cited are concrete: lithium-ion fires are difficult to extinguish, and the December 2025 Warwick fire is a local reference point. The question the case raises is one of regulatory approach — whether storage is governed by setback rules, fire codes, and siting standards applied to specific proposals, or by a blanket town-wide prohibition. The choice carries implications for New York's 6 GW storage target, which depends on the cumulative outcome of local decisions like this one.