The Value of Progress: Understanding How Advances in Technology Can Affect Land Acquisition

     There are many approaches that one could conceivably take when considering this topic.  Technology is always advancing, and it seems over time that the rate of advancement increases exponentially.  There is not a field or endeavor that is immune to this process.  Hydro-fracking and directional drilling techniques allowed the Oil & Gas sector to open entire new formations and basins to production.  Material and manufacturing advances in photovoltaic solar panels have increased their efficiency from just 10% to 12% in the 1990’s to an average of 22% to 24% today with laboratory tests achieving panel efficiencies over 40%.  This has allowed developers to generate more power from a smaller footprint thus easing the land burden on communities and competing industries.  But to illustrate this process as it relates to land acquisition in the energy sector, this discussion will focus on how technological advancements underpinning the next generation of battery energy storage system (“B.E.S.S.”) projects will affect the siting programs supporting those ventures.

     First, a brief note as to why these B.E.S.S. sites are essential both to the solar and wind generation facilities and to the grid at large.  Generating power from photovoltaic solar panels and wind turbines is well within established engineering and mechanical capabilities and has been for quite some time.  That is not to say that either process is easy by any means, but rather that from a technological standpoint this nation could generate a large percentage of its electricity needs in this fashion.  But beyond the insufficient high voltage transmission infrastructure available to offtake this power, the woefully lacking domestic manufacturing capacity to produce the necessary turbines and panels, and the tariff penalties in place should one try and import instead, all of which are beyond the present scope of this discussion, there is another critical issue facing renewable power generation – the intermittency problem.  Quite simply, when the wind isn’t blowing, or the sun isn’t shining, these generation methods do not produce electricity.  Americans have gotten used to being able to turn the lights on at midnight and we still appreciate air conditioning even on a calm day. 

     Battery storage sites are the means utilized to solve the intermittency issue inherent in renewable power generation.  Power produced by the panels and turbines not needed for immediate use can be stored in batteries and saved for a brief period until needed.  Since 2010, most utility-scale storage sites have utilized lithium-ion (“Li-ion”) batteries.  Li-ion batteries combine with and utilize various cathode materials such as lithium cobalt oxide (“LCO”), lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (“NCA”), lithium manganese oxide (“LMO”), and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (“NMC”).  Each of these variants provide a different combination of energy density, safety, and cycle life that can be chosen based on the specific application in focus.

     Sometimes called “common lithiums,” an engineer or designer will select the specific variant based on the specific application in focus.  This type of battery has been employed in many applications across multiple industries and so the shared research and design costs have created what is currently the option offering the best balance of energy density, lifespan, cyclical charge/discharge rates, and relatively low cost to manufacture and maintain.  This is why you will find this type of battery technology in use not only at battery storage sites, but also in electric vehicles, computers, cell phones, watches, and most other designs requiring the storage of rechargeable electricity.

     But with these advantages, there are also the inevitable concerns and shortcomings that must be recognized as well.  Common lithium batteries, especially those combined with cobalt, have a slight tendency to ignite releasing a tremendous amount of energy.  This can and has led to many fires, some of which damaged only equipment and facilities and some which caused massive brush fires.  Some of these fires went on to cause substantial damage to local communities and environments.  In January of 2025, a massive fire at Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in Monterrey County, California, sent columns of toxic smoke into the air that required the evacuation of 1,500 nearby residents.  By the time the fire had been brought under control 300 MW of storage capacity was destroyed and removed from California’s grid (Vistra Energy sold much of the energy it stored at Moss Landing to Pacific Gas & Electric – one of the nation’s largest utilities).  Seemingly overnight this one incident removed approximately two percent (2%) of California’s battery storage capacity.  Balancing a utility grid requires reliable energy generation, storage, and availability and failure could mean catastrophic ripple effects throughout the system, especially during high demand periods.

     Every time there is an incident such as at Moss Landing, industry and communities are left to ask whether or not it is reasonable to proliferate such facilities throughout the nation. Further, calls for additional and more stringent regulations are the inevitable result which further impact the industry’s ability to maintain its growth forecasts. All of this has an impact on the land siting and acquisition campaigns required to develop such projects. A further follow-on effect is to cast doubt on many of the already acquired proposed sites currently languishing in the nation’s interconnection queues awaiting approval to build and connect into the grid. Essentially, the current state of technology is such that it causes some trepidation as to whether additional and larger such sites should be permitted. Until and unless the underlying technology, and the regulations governing it, are sufficiently advanced to provide for a more reliable and ultimately safe roll out there will be headwinds necessarily faced by such efforts.

     While common lithium-ion batteries are the current choice for energy storage applications, new technologies are being researched, developed, and brought online that provide greater advantages with fewer potential liabilities.  Sodium ion batteries have been around since the 1970s but their implementation at scale were initially hindered by their lower energy density and much shorter life cycles, both of which greatly hindered their commercial viability.  Sodium, one of two elements comprising table salt, is one of the most abundant elements in the world causing it to be far more economical to recover than other alternatives.  It is also a far safer and more stable element than is lithium meaning that sodium ion batteries  offer less chance of thermal runaway.  The extraction and mining process for sodium is also far less land intensive than is the case with lithium mining and so the front-end environmental and ecological burdens are greatly reduced as well.  At present, common lithium-ion batteries are able to offer greater energy density and longer lifespan which keeps them at the forefront of real-world applications.  However, recent advances by researchers working to advance sodium ion batteries have significantly narrowed this gap and placed on the near horizon the time when this technology could reasonably and economically compete with common lithium-ion battery technology.

     BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, and among the world’s largest car manufacturers in general, has developed and commercialized a new sodium ion battery technology that is now being put in its electric vehicles (BYD’s “Blade Battery”).  While BYD’s engineers were not able to equalize energy density capacities between sodium and lithium, they were able to reengineer the battery’s architecture by incorporating more advanced supporting elements and materials, thus narrowing the overall performance gap between lithium ion and sodium ion batteries. By simultaneously focusing on enhancing the overall efficiency of their electric vehicle drivetrains, the real-world difference between these two power sources is negligible for most consumers.  The same engineering analysis and design process could be applied to other applications currently using lithium-ion batteries allowing for the substitution of safer and more cost-efficient battery storage technology.

     As industry develops safe, cost-effective, and operationally comparable alternatives to common lithium-ion batteries their use in real world applications such as B.E.S.S. sites will radically affect the siting and acquisition process.  A major and necessary part of the development process is securing the necessary permits and regulatory approval that will allow these sites to be constructed and plugged into the existing grid. There is currently some trepidation amongst those charged with reviewing and approving such applications because of the potential and inherent risks to the community and nearby residents.  How far away from a populated area should these facilities be sited?  How much acreage is required and what, if any, buffer zones should be required.  The answers to these questions have a direct impact not only on the permitting process but on the front-end acquisition parameters and budget as well.  If a safer alternative could be reasonably provided it would be logical to assume that land acquisition agents could more readily and accurately identify suitable tracts of land, that landowners could be timely presented with accurate development proposals to weigh and consider, that the review process could be streamlined both for the applicants as well as the utilities themselves, and a higher percentage of these proposed sites granted approval to begin construction and operations.

     At present, there has been what essentially amounts to a land rush over the past several years as developers seek to site, permit, build, and operate B.E.S.S. sites around the nation. While this is necessary from the point of view of solving the intermittency problem inherent in solar and wind generation, and greatly supports a robust and well-balanced utility grid able to provide electricity at all times upon demand, the sheer number of applications combined with overarching questions as to the inherent safety of these sites has caused the permitting process to slow to a crawl.  As an industry responsible for providing power to a nation it is essential that more of these facilities be permitted and brought into service.

     Land acquisition can be and will be affected by what happens in a laboratory thousands of miles away from the proposed project site.  Whether a land agent or developer leaning over the back of the pickup truck in a field somewhere in rural America can come to terms with a landowner to use their tract of land as the location of a new battery storage site is directly affected by the progress made by scientists and engineers seeking to revolutionize the technology underpinning those necessary facilities.  Before the lithium-ion batteries so commonly used today, the peak of storage technology design was lead acid batteries.  Just as lithium-based batteries replaced lead-acid batteries and allowed the industry to build first megawatt and then gigawatt-sized storage facilities, so too shall lithium technology eventually be replaced by a better alternative.  Scientific and engineering progress is a fact of life and left in its wake are industries, projects, and designers forced to adapt to new realities.  The world we live in is large and complicated, and there can be no doubt that it is interconnected to such an extent that is almost difficult to fathom.  There is a quaint notion that those in the land development and acquisition field harken back to a simpler time of boots, and pickup trucks, and dusty back roads, but in reality they are a necessary part of some of the most sophisticated projects being conceived and constructed anywhere on the planet.