The proposed battery energy storage facility on Bayview Ridge cleared a state permit last week. The Washington Department of Ecology approved the project's Joint Aquatic Resources Permit on Thursday, the Skagit Valley Herald reported. The site is west of Burlington, Washington, in Skagit County.
The project still faces a fight over its county land-use approval. A special-use permit Skagit County issued in January 2025 remains under appeal.
The project
NextEra Energy proposes to build the facility on 22 acres along McFarland Road and connect it to the nearby Fredonia substation run by the area's electric utility. Its lithium-ion batteries could store up to 200 megawatt hours of electricity, charging when power is plentiful and sending it back to the grid when demand is high.
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When the county hearing examiner approved the special-use permit, the county staff report described around 92 single-story inverter and transformer units and 368 battery cabinets inside an 18-acre fenced area south of Ovenell Road and the Skagit Regional Airport, Cascadia Daily News reported at the time. The site is in the Bayview Ridge Heavy Industrial zone, so a county ban on new energy storage on farmland passed that fall does not apply to it. Cascadia Daily News described the site as west of Mount Vernon; the Herald places it west of Burlington. Both are describing the same Bayview Ridge industrial area.
What the state permit covers
The state permit deals with wetlands that are not federally regulated. Ecology estimates direct impacts to about 0.9 of an acre of Category III wetlands and 3.16 acres of Category IV wetlands, indirect impacts to about 1.01 acres of wetlands, and impacts to about 3.32 acres of wetland buffers. Ecology's order found the work would comply with state law, subject to conditions. One condition requires the company to buy 5.05 credits at the Skagit Environmental Mitigation Bank.
The appeal
The local group Stewards of Skagit appealed the county permit. The Board of Commissioners denied that appeal, and the group took it to court. A Whatcom County Superior Court judge reversed the board's denial and sent the matter back to the commissioners for another appeal hearing, according to the Herald.
Opposition has been steady. At the county's first public hearing on Dec. 20, 2024, more than a dozen residents spoke, mostly against the application. Over the past year, members of the public have regularly come to county commission meetings to object to the lithium-ion batteries, citing safety and environmental health concerns. On the other side, the utility has asked private companies to build large battery farms next to its substations, and backers say the batteries help balance the grid as the state moves away from fossil fuels.
What's next
The project's next step runs back through the Skagit County Board of Commissioners, which must rehear the appeal the court sent back. No date for that hearing was reported.
Sources
- State approves a permit required for proposed Bayview Ridge battery energy storage facility, Skagit Valley Herald
- Battery energy storage system approved for industrial land west of Mount Vernon, Cascadia Daily News
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