Plans for a 400MW standalone BESS in Howard County, Indiana, proposed by Spearmint Energy faced a major setback last week, after the City of Kokomo Plan Commission rejected a rezoning request submitted by the Miami, Florida-based independent power producer (IPP).
According to local news outlet Kokomo Tribune, the rezoning request for Spearmint’s Pumpkinvine BESS was turned down at the recent 12 November 2024 commission meeting due to the project’s close proximity to residential areas and potential fire risks.
Spearmint acquired the Pumpkinvine project at the end of last year alongside a smaller 125MW standalone BESS, dubbed the Green Eagle BESS, from BW Group’s renewable energy development subsidiary, BW Solar.
400MW of BESS connecting to MISO
Spearmint’s Pumpkinvine BESS is expected to have an up to 400MW storage capacity across 15 acres of land located on the outskirts of Kokomo in Howard County, Indiana.
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The project, which is anticipated to utilise lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology, will connect to the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)-controlled electricity grid via a transmission line owned by utility Duke Energy.
Spearmint submitted a MISO interconnection queue request for the project in August 2023 (queue number J2766) that’s currently in the first phase of the system operator’s Definitive Planning Phase (DPP).
Coordinated and organised local opposition
As people working within the energy storage and wider renewable energy industries will know, projects are often approved by local authorities without any issues.
However, there are some projects that garner widespread negative interest from locals, with the opposition against Spearmint’s Pumpkinvine BESS appearing to be both very organised and well coordinated.
According to local news reports, several advertisements were run in the Kokomo Tribune during the leadup to the recent commission meeting speaking out against Spearmint’s proposal, which appear to have been funded by local resident and business owner, Brent Owens.
Owens, who owns a local financial advisory firm, also created a Change.org petition page for opponents of the plans accumulating over 800 signatures during the past couple of weeks.
These actions led to a large crowd at the recent commission meeting, where a Spearmint presentation was followed by a string of concerned locals who spoke of the dangers of residing near a BESS facility.
Following the unanimous rejection from Kokomo’s Plan Commission, Spearmint will have to wait at least 6 months to resubmit a rezoning request for the project. In an interview after the meeting, member of the city Plan Commission, Matt Grecu, told reporters at the Kokomo Tribune that he voted against the plans due to “a lot of uncertainties” surrounding the project.
In a dedicated website for the project, Spearmint states that construction isn’t expected to commence before 2027, which is now likely to start even later, if at all, following the recent denial.
Spearmint targets BESS developments in MISO
Elsewhere in MISO, Spearmint recently applied for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the construction of a 175MW standalone BESS located in Brookings County, South Dakota.
Plans for Spearmint’s Cloverleaf Battery Storage project were discussed during a recent meeting held by Brookings County Planning & Zoning Commission on 7 November 2024.
Spearmint is seeking interconnection agreements for its Cloverleaf project with two system operators, MISO and Southwest Power Pool (SPP). The developer first submitted the MISO and SPP requests in 2023, which it expects to complete during the first quarters of 2028 and 2026, respectively.
As recently reported by Energy-Storage.news, Spearmint is also pursuing development of another BESS located within MISO’s service territory known as Snowshoe BESS. The 150MW/600MWh standalone battery storage project is currently under review by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
Spearmint is one of a handful of developers targeting MISO’s service territory, that also includes Denmark’s Ørstead and California-based Mission Clean Energy. The pair announced in August this year that they had submitted over 1GW of battery storage requests located in the northern MISO region.
Spearmint’s first 150MW/300MWh project online from 10+ state pipeline
Since its formation in 2022, Spearmint Energy has achieved several noteworthy milestones including closing a US$200 million credit facility with Aiga Capital Partners, and placing its first project into commercial operations.
As covered by Energy-Storage.news at the start of this year, Spearmint announced that its 150MW/300MWh Revolution BESS, located in Upton County, Texas, had been brought online.
According to Spearmint, it is currently developing over 20 battery storage projects with a cumulative storage capacity of over 10GWh across 10+ US states.
