A 100 MW battery proposed on Tomsons Road, now in a local environmental review the developer asked the town to waive, with a residents' petition pushing for a moratorium.
Town of Saugerties · Ulster County · Energy storage · Status: in progress — under local review, contested
KCE NY 34 is a proposed 100 MW / 400 MWh (4-hour) lithium-ion battery storage facility on an industrial-zoned parcel at 7 Tomsons Road in the Town of Saugerties. It would occupy roughly 7 to 11 acres of a ~60-acre lot — the Planning Board minutes describe about 7 acres of battery development (with 4.6 acres of tree clearing), while the developer's NYSERDA summary estimates about 11 acres — and interconnect at Central Hudson's Saugerties 69/115 kV substation (NYISO queue C24-173). The developer, Key Capture Energy of Albany, would own and operate the site through project company KCE NY 34, LLC, and holds a NYSERDA bulk-storage incentive contract with a target in-service date of December 1, 2030. (NYSERDA project summary; Saugerties Planning Board minutes, Feb 17, 2026)
Key Capture Energy filed for site-plan approval and a special-use permit — and asked the town to issue a SEQRA negative declaration — on December 8, 2025. (NYSERDA summary) At the project's first Planning Board presentation on February 17, 2026, the board treated it as a SEQRA Unlisted action, circulated a notice of intent to serve as lead agency, and took in Part 1 of the Full Environmental Assessment Form — meaning the requested negative declaration had not been granted. (Planning Board minutes) The Town Board had separately held an informational Q&A in January 2026 at which residents spoke against the project. (Hudson Valley One)
Unlike neighboring Hurley, Saugerties had not enacted a BESS moratorium or local law as of May 2026 — the central demand of the opposition petition. (The Overlook)
The developer's representatives — Kolin Loveless and project manager Paul Williamson — point to lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistry, a third-party fire review required under NY's fire code, an incident rate they put at "lower than 0.05% of all BESS installed," and a nearest residence about 945 feet away; the project fact sheet promises 20–40 union construction jobs and tax revenue through a PILOT / Host Community Agreement. (Planning Board minutes; KCE fact sheet)
Opposition is organized around the "Stop the Tomsons Road BESS Project" petition, which had 716 signatures toward a 1,000 goal as of June 2026 and asks the town to deny the application, bar large-scale BESS town-wide, or enact a moratorium. (Change.org) Residents have raised noise — "13 acres of giant electric boxes," in one objector's words — and the absence of an emergency-response plan, and have pressed for a full environmental review rather than a negative declaration. (Hudson Valley One)
s fire code, a reported incident rate
a way to stop
Stop the Tomsons Road BESS Project
13 acres of giant electric boxes
Saugerties is the live test of the site-specific review path while a town has no BESS-specific law on its books. The same developer is advancing a comparable project here and the question — negative declaration versus a full environmental review — mirrors what played out at the larger Terra-Gen/Alcazar site in the Town of Ulster, which the Planning Board minutes note is "more than 2x the size." The petition's fallback demand, a moratorium, is the same instrument neighboring Hurley and Plattekill used; whether Saugerties follows or instead resolves the project through SEQRA is the open question this case tracks.