WARWICK – Fire in a new lithium battery storage facility in the Town of Warwick is under investigation by the company that is operating it – Convergent Energy and Power. The facility provides backup storage for Orange and Rockland Utilities.
The facility, one of two in Warwick, is located on school property near the bus garage. It caught fire on Tuesday and was left to burn out since water cannot be used to extinguish it.
Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton said a thorough investigation will be conducted.
“Certainly, it is a concern as to what precautions are in place, how do you prevent something like this going forward because clearly, the State of New York is pushing for all electric and you cannot have all electric without some way to store the excess energy that you create. So, certainly it would be concern as to how do you prevent this kind of thing going forward,” Sweeton said.
As to the state’s plans to go all electric, the supervisor said it is “over ambitious. I don’t think they can reach it and I don’t think they thought through all of the potential issues and this is clearly an example of one of them.”
