It’s lights out for Carlsbad’s solar farm proposal

A proposal to build a 35-acre solar farm on city property in Carlsbad went dark Tuesday because of growing concerns about possible battery fires and public safety after more than a decade of discussions.

The Carlsbad City Council voted unanimously to reject a proposed contract with a San Francisco-based consultant for the first phase of design work on the project. Council members said the solar farm was a good idea, but the property at the Maerkle Reservoir on Carlsbad’s northeast border with Oceanside and Vista is a bad location.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Councilmember Teresa Acosta. “I’m sorry that this is not going to work out.”

The hilltop location is near the Ocean Hills senior community in Oceanside and the Shadowridge neighborhood in Vista. The only paved access is from a short residential street in Vista, though the property also can be reached by a narrow, winding dirt road from the Sunny Creek area along El Camino Real in Carlsbad.

Clean energy activists have supported the idea for years. A solar farm would support Carlsbad’s clean energy goals, provide an additional source of revenue, and could be part of a microgrid giving the city greater energy independence.

However, residents living nearby in Oceanside and Vista, many of whom only learned of it recently, said the storage batteries needed for the project would endanger their homes.  The lithium ion batteries used in most systems can overheat and catch fire. Once ablaze the fires are difficult to put out and can spread toxic fumes.

A battery fire in September 2024 at a San Diego Gas & Electric energy storage facility in Escondido caused the evacuation of nearby businesses and schools, and smoldered afterward for days. Earlier last year, a fire at the Gateway Energy Storage facility in Otay Mesa burned for more than two weeks before it was completely extinguished.

Becky Evanson, whose home in Shadowridge overlooks the Carlsbad site, said the field of solar panels would be unsightly as well as a public safety hazard.

“It is huge and foreboding,” Evanson said. “The residents of Shadowridge and Ocean Hills have everything to lose and nothing to gain.”

Carlsbad’s Fire Chief Mike Calderwood agreed that the batteries would be a significant hazard. Vista’s fire stations would be the closest and the first to respond to an emergency at the facility under the region’s mutual-aid agreement.

“My professional opinion … is that this is a lot to ask of another agency,” Calderwood said.

The City Council asked staffers to look into other possible sites for a solar project and report back at a future meeting, though they are unlikely to find as large a property as the one available at the reservoir.

Maerkle Reservoir was created by a dam built in the 1950s to hold a backup water supply for the city. The city has about 56 undeveloped acres there, of which about 35 acres is available for the solar project, said Keri Martinez, a senior engineer for the city.

Batteries are an important part of the project because it would not be practical to send electricity directly from the panels to the already overburdened power grid, Martinez said.

City officials have talked about a possible solar farm on the site since at least 2015, she said. In November 2024 the City Council agreed to proceed with a feasibility study.

The contract proposed Tuesday with ForeFront Licensing LLC would have cost $828,307 for a first phase of work to determine if the project is viable. If viable, there would be a second phase to complete a preliminary design, obtain permits, estimate construction costs and more, bringing the total cost of the contract to $1.3 million.

Carlsbad installed 720 solar panels as shade structures in the parking lot and around the swimming pools at its Alga Norte Community Park in 2016. The system cost about $1 million to install, and the city received a state rebate of more than $250,000 for the project.

The city also installed 216 solar panels at its police and fire headquarters, where they generate the equivalent of the electricity used by 90 average households annually.