By Rob Owens

ALDEN - As utility-scale battery projects spread across eastern Erie County, the Town of Alden is moving to put local safeguards in place before developers knock on the door.

The Town Board voted unanimously on August 3 to schedule a public hearing for Local Law No. 4 of 2026, a measure designed to regulate battery energy storage systems (BESS). The hearing was set for August 17 at Town Hall on Wende Road, running alongside another hearing regarding a potential override of the state property-tax cap.

Battery energy storage systems have become essential to New York's clean-energy infrastructure, storing power generated during off-peak hours and feeding it back into the electrical grid when demand peaks. Yet their rapid emergence in rural and semi-rural upstate towns has triggered land-use debates across the region.

Chief among resident and municipal concerns is public safety. Large utility-scale facilities rely on banks of lithium-ion cells that can, under rare failure scenarios, experience thermal runaway. These incidents produce intense heat, release hazardous off-gasses, and demand specialized fire-suppression protocols that can stretch rural volunteer fire departments. In addition, neighbors frequently raise issues regarding industrial noise from cooling equipment, landscape buffering, property values, and the long-term decommissioning of obsolete units.

Local Law No. 4 aims to answer those issues by creating clear town-level rules. While specific draft requirements were filed with the Town Clerk's office ahead of the hearing, municipal battery codes generally establish strict zoning boundaries, require visual screening berms, enforce setbacks from neighboring property lines, and mandate developer-funded decommissioning bonds and first-responder training plans.

The board's August 3 roll-call vote authorized the hearing notices to run in the Akron Bugle. As of September 9, official minutes from the August 17 session had not yet been published to the town's records, leaving it temporarily unconfirmed whether board members voted to adopt the law, enacted revisions, or tabled the measure for further review.

Residents interested in reading the proposed battery rules or tracking future public agenda items can inspect draft copies of Local Law No. 4 at the Town Clerk's office during regular business hours.