battery energy storage fires

RESIDENTS CHARGED UP OVER PROSPECT OF BATTERY STORAGE SITE IN LA MESA NEIGHBORHOOD

Story and Photos By Karen Pearlman
 
April 11, 2025  (La Mesa) --  “No matter how it’s sugarcoated, battery storage facilities are dystopian looking, loud, detrimental to real estate values and potentially deadly,” La Mesa City Councilmember Laura Lothian says.
 
For several years, Lothian (pictured above, with Heartland Fire & Rescue Fire Chief Bent Koch) has been a vocal opponent of a proposed Battery Energy Storage System site in the Lake Murray area of La Mesa.
 
With residents asking to be heard, she held an informal town hall on Wednesday, April 9 at Brew Coffee Spot on Lake Murray Boulevard, just steps away from the proposed site.
 
Although the La Mesa City Council still has to approve the project, local residents are fired up and mostly angry about the possibility of the system running in the neighborhood.

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AFTER OTAY FIRE, LA MESA CITY MANAGER OFFERS ASSURANCES ON SAFETY OF PROPOSED BATTERY STORAGE SITE IN LA MESA

By Miriam Raftery

Image: Rendering of proposed Murray Project in La Mesa, via Enersmart's project website

July 8, 2024 (La Mesa) – A battery fire at the Gateway energy storage facility in Otay Mesa in May forced evacuation of nearby businesses for nearly two weeks.  

Enersmart has proposed building a battery energy storage facility at 8131 El  Paso Street in La Mesa.

After the Otay fire, La Mesa City Manager Greg Humora recently sent an e-mail to the mayor and city councilmembers highlighting key differences between the Otay and La Mesa projects in size, technology, and fire protection plans.


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Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.