The Lake County Council approved a zoning change for a parcel of land in unincorporated Lake County for an energy storage facility.
Tenaska, a Nebraska-based renewable energy company, has proposed a Longspur Energy Storage LLC facility on 35 acres of land near Indiana 2 and Clay Road, according to attorney Jim Wieser, who has been helping the company with its Lake County project. It would be the first project of its kind in the county.
To begin development, Tenaska first had to request a rezoning of the Hebron property from agricultural to conditional development, Wieser said.
The project would include 300 megawatts of standalone battery storage capacity. NIPSCO will be interconnected to the grid, which will help the utility provide another source of energy, according to Wieser and a plan commission report.
The storage facility would include small batteries stacked on top of each other, Wieser said. The batteries would then connect to a mainline for NIPSCO to utilize, he said.
“It enhances the whole energy grid,” Wieser said. “It’s becoming very popular across the country.”
In the construction phase, the project would generate 70 jobs and then up to two full-time employees when the facility becomes operational. Once operational, the facility would generate $300 million for the county, according to the report.
The county plan commission approved the rezoning in October, Wieser said. While the plan commission discussed the rezoning, Wieser said some community members addressed the commission with concerns about the environment and trained first responders in the event of an accident at the site, he said.
The environmental concerns were about the potential of lithium spilling from the batteries, Wieser said. Tanaska officials told the public at those meetings that it’s “highly doubtful” that the batteries would spill, but in the rare event it happened, the lithium inside the batteries would be different from the lithium found in home-use batteries in that it would cool faster, he said.
Wieser said the Lowell fire chief addressed the commission to ensure that area first responders support the project and would coordinate to address any situation that would arise in the facility.
The Lake County Council unanimously approved the rezoning on Dec. 10. Lake County Councilman Randy Niemeyer, R-Cedar Lake, said he supported the project because it had been thoroughly vetted by the plan commission.
With rezoning approval from the council, Wieser said the project now has to apply for a special exception. The county Board of Zoning Appeals will consider the special exception on Jan. 15, 2025.
The rezoning approval was basically a special exception, Wieser said, so he doesn’t foresee any holdups in the process moving forward.
“I am confident it will pass,” Wieser said.
akukulka@post-trib.com
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