A battery storage plant rejected by a town, 159 times over
A battery storage plant is a facility that charges racks of rechargeable batteries from the electric grid and discharges the power back into it later. A battery storage plant rejected by a town or a county in the United States now has 159 cases on record, according to a national tracker called the Renewable Rejection Database. The tracker states its records come from local government meetings, news reporting, and community submissions, not only from official votes.
That total is roughly triple the 52 rejections the same tracker reported in March 2025, when it ran under an older name and counted cases across the world. The tracker has since narrowed its scope to the United States, and 159 is the current domestic count, a threefold rise this article calculates from the 2 dated figures the tracker itself reported.
Wind and solar are rejected more often than batteries
The Renewable Rejection Database tracks 3 technologies, not only batteries. It counts 619 rejections and restrictions for wind projects, the most of any technology it tracks. It counts 532 for solar projects. Battery storage plants trail both, at 159.
All 3 totals were read from the tracker own current page on the same day. The page does not state whether these totals count distinct communities or distinct rejection actions.
Show the numbers
| Wind | 619 |
| Solar | 532 |
| Battery | 159 |
A fire official in Illinois warns nothing could stop it
In Rock Island County, Illinois, a company called Tiger Storage has proposed a battery storage plant on 16 acres outside the town of Milan, holding 200 battery units, each the size of a semi trailer. The county has not yet decided the case. Greg Marty, deputy chief of the Rock Island Fire Department, told county planners in August 2026 that the area is protected only by volunteer firefighters, and that a battery fire cannot be stopped once thermal runaway begins, a chain reaction inside a damaged battery cell that spreads heat from cell to cell.
There's no fire protection measures that can stop it.
Greg Marty, deputy chief of the Rock Island Fire Department, Illinois. Source 3.
Tiger Storage did not respond to a request for comment.
Morro Bay moves toward a permanent ban
In Morro Bay, California, Vistra Corp withdrew a proposed 600 megawatt battery plant at a retired power plant site in 2025, the same year its 750 megawatt Moss Landing facility, about 65 miles up the coast, caught fire in January and again on February 18, forcing roughly 1,500 residents to evacuate. Morro Bay answered with a temporary ban on new battery plants, which its city council said it planned to extend until 2027. On August 19, 2026, the Morro Bay Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the City Council make that ban permanent before the temporary pause expires in January 2027.
Blanket prohibitions do not further the goal of local control.
Spencer Brandt, identified by source 4 as a representative of Central Coast Community Energy. Source 4.
The industry is not shrinking
None of this reflects a shrinking industry. The American Clean Power Association, a trade group for the renewable energy industry, states that nearly 53 gigawatts of battery storage now operates in the United States, up from about 30 gigawatts at the end of 2024. It cites a Wood Mackenzie forecast of growth from 1 gigawatt in 2019 to 98 gigawatts by 2030.
The 2019, end of 2024, and now figures describe capacity already installed, according to the American Clean Power Association. The 2030 figure is a Wood Mackenzie forecast the association cites, not a measurement.
Show the numbers
| 2019 | 1 |
| End of 2024 | 30 |
| Now | 53 |
| 2030 forecast | 98 |
The same association reports that lithium ion battery pack prices fell nearly 84%, from more than 715 dollars per kilowatt hour in 2014 to 115 dollars per kilowatt hour in 2024. It also states that fires or explosions at battery storage plants are rare, without giving a number for how rare.