{"id":341376,"date":"2026-06-01T13:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341376\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T13:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:17:16","slug":"proposed-coyote-valley-battery-project-in-san-jose-draws-opposition-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341376\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed Coyote Valley battery project in San Jose draws opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Virginia energy company is proposing to build one of the largest battery storage plants in California in Coyote Valley, a rural expanse of farmland and scenic open space on San Jose\u2019s southern edges.<\/p>\n

Located west of Highway 101 along Bailey Avenue between Monterey Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard, the facility would include thousands of lithium-ion batteries in 312 shipping containers, company officials say, spread across 40 acres \u2014 an area roughly the size of 30 football fields \u2014 on a 128-acre parcel now used for growing crops.<\/p>\n

\"MapKnown as the Jewelflower project<\/a>, the facility is needed to expand renewable energy statewide by storing solar power in the daytime for use at night, according to AES, the company proposing the plan. That will reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases, and help the state reach its goal of 100% renewable and carbon-free energy by 2045, company officials say.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs California\u2019s energy needs continue to grow, projects like Jewelflower are being considered as part of broader efforts to strengthen grid reliability and support a more resilient energy system,\u201d said Chloe Constant, an AES spokeswoman in Colorado. \u201cWe believe those goals and environmental stewardship can be part of the same conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But environmental groups, some state lawmakers and parents are mobilizing to fight it. They say the project would ruin the rural character of the area, take high-quality farmland out of production, harm wildlife and put the Charter School of Morgan Hill, a nearby public elementary school with 650 students, at risk if there were a fire or other accident there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a right place and a wrong place for battery storage facilities, and Coyote Valley is the wrong place,\u201d said Alice Kaufman, policy and advocacy director for Green Foothills, an environmental group in Palo Alto.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an industrial use. It should be located in an industrial area. We are completely in support of renewable energy, but we have to make sure we are putting these industrial uses in the right place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, environmental groups and public agencies, including the city of San Jose, have spent more than $160 million to buy thousands of acres in and around Coyote Valley<\/a> to preserve it as a key wildlife corridor, farming region and natural buffer between San Jose and Morgan Hill. Seven years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law designating Coyote Valley as an area of statewide environmental significance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a public investment with an outcome for nature and the public,\u201d said Andrea Mackenzie, general manager of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, a government agency based in San Jose. \u201cIt\u2019s not thousands of acres of vacant land just waiting to be developed.\u201d<\/p>\n

AES has signed an agreement with three longtime farming families who own the land: the Lesters, Fosters and Bensons.<\/p>\n

\"SantaSanta Clara Valley Open Space Authority General Manager Andrea Mackenzie shows this news organization the proposed site for an industrial battery storage facility on private farmland in Coyote Valley, near the corner of Bailey Avenue and Santa Teresa Boulevard in San Jose, Calif., on May 29, 2026. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coyote Valley has been a flashpoint for development battles for generations. It is widely viewed as one of the last landscapes in San Jose that reflects what the region looked like before the growth of Silicon Valley began in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s, the area was eyed as a potential world headquarters for Apple. In the 1990s, Cisco drew up a similar proposal. Both plans encountered staunch opposition from environmental groups and farming advocates and were eventually withdrawn.<\/p>\n

In 2022, former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, working as an industry consultant, submitted preliminary documents to the city proposing the battery storage plant at the site.<\/p>\n

But in February 2023, San Jose city planning officials said the project was inconsistent with the open space and agricultural zoning in Coyote Valley and stated they would recommend that the City Council deny it.<\/p>\n

In response, AES announced plans to use a state law to take the project directly to a state agency, the California Energy Commission, for approval later this year \u2014 essentially going around city officials. Newsom signed that law, AB 205, in 2022 to streamline approval for solar, wind and battery projects statewide over local opposition.<\/p>\n

Three state lawmakers, Assemblymembers Ash Kalra, D-San Jose and Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, along with State Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, have come out in opposition to the AES project.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Jose has land zoned for industrial uses,\u201d Cortese said. \u201cTo have people come along and just say, \u2018We\u2019re defying that,\u2019 it doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBatteries are the way of the future,\u201d he added. \u201cWe are going to need them. Go put them in an industrial area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under state law, AES still must complete an environmental impact report and hold public hearings. Cortese said opponents should sue if the project moves forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would encourage a CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) lawsuit,\u201d Cortese said. \u201cThat would be legit if these people want to play hardball and try to just ram it through. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail, and the developers will find an industrial site nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n

California has seen a massive increase<\/a> in large battery storage plants in recent years, going from 29 statewide in 2020 to 248 today. Many more are planned across the Bay Area, in the Central Valley and Southern California.<\/p>\n

The plants store electricity generated by large solar and wind farms to release back on the power grid at night when the sun isn\u2019t shining or the wind isn\u2019t blowing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are going to move toward a power grid that is dominated by renewable energy, we need battery storage,\u201d said Alex Jackson, the California director of the American Clean Power Association, an industry trade group. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely essential to the growth of clean energy in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complicating the politics, however, was a huge fire at a battery storage plant last year in Moss Landing<\/a> in Monterey County.<\/p>\n

That plant, owned by Texas-based Vistra Energy, sent a huge column of toxic smoke into the air as its batteries burned in January 2025, causing authorities to evacuate 1,200 people and close Highway 1. The cleanup is continuing, with the burned batteries being shipped to a recycling plant in Nevada<\/a>, and the EPA, state regulators and company officials investigating its cause.<\/p>\n

Jackson said his organization does not have a position on the Coyote Valley proposal, but he said changes in state law, fire codes and industry practices mean new battery plants are safer. Moss Landing had thousands of batteries stacked indoors in an old PG&E building. The new facilities have batteries spread outside in shipping containers \u2014 each with temperature sensors and fire suppression systems to greatly reduce the risk of any fire spreading, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoss Landing was an anomaly,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cIt is not representative at all of the facilities that are being built today.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the board of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority voted unanimously to pass a resolution opposing the Coyote Valley project<\/a>. Alex Kennett, one of the board members, said he met with AES representatives and suggested other locations nearby in industrial areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey basically poo-poohed it,\u201d Kennett said. \u201cThey said it\u2019s our way or the highway.\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked to the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there anybody here from AES?\u201d he asked. \u201cNo? That says a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Constant, the AES spokeswoman, declined to make any company officials available for an interview. She said via email that the plant would have transmission lines, some buried and some above ground, that connect it to the nearby PG&E Metcalf substation, a benefit of the Coyote Valley location. Some of the stored electricity will be used in the Bay Area and some will be sent across the state, she added.<\/p>\n

Families at the Charter School of Morgan Hill, located along Monterey Road about 100 yards from the site, have collected more than 2,900 signatures on a petition opposing the project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Susan Pfefferlen, principal at the school, said there is only one route in and out of the school, which could cause problems in an emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents are very concerned about this,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a parent committee that is opposing it. Parents are worried about safety, and their children are in our care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FarmlandFarmland in Coyote Valley, near the corner of Bailey Avenue and Santa Teresa Boulevard in San Jose, Calif., seen on May 29, 2026, is the site proposed for an industrial battery storage facility. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Virginia energy company is proposing to build one of the largest battery storage plants in California in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[140623,15913,9149,140621,78051,28192,140622,8169,193,21481,13880,88,90,89,97575],"class_list":["post-341376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-aes","tag-batteries","tag-battery-storage","tag-battery-storage-plants","tag-bess","tag-coyote-valley","tag-coyote-valley-battery-plant","tag-green-energy","tag-morgan-hill","tag-moss-landing-battery-fire","tag-renewable-energy","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-valley-open-space-authority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}