Text · page 12 of 14
Read the whole document on one page (all 14 pages, each with its own heading)
Town of Hamburg Planning Board Minutes July 1, 2026 Town Engineer Camie Jarrell had no comment at this time. Member Ryan: Is this the first Tesla megapack that is going to be built? Mr. Kaufman stated that no, the company has several of these battery storage projects using the Tesla megapacks in the works. There are 20,000 Tesla Megapacks throughout the country and there has never been an incident. Member Ryan asked if there are some up and running? Mr. Kaufman responded that no, there are not any that are up and running. Member Ryan asked the Applicant if they will be working with a Fire Protection Engineer? The Applicant confirmed that they will. Member Ryan asked then we do not know what the potential problems could be since we have not had anything other than controlled testing? Mr. Hopkins informed the Board that these are relatively new projects throughout New York State, and there is a host of standards that will be complied with. Member Ryan stated that at the last meeting, the Hazard Mitigation Analysis was brought up. Has the Applicant looked into that yet? Mr. Kaufman responded that they are in the process of preparing that now and hopefully will have that in a couple of weeks. Member Stewart asked how long have these Tesla Megapacks been in production? Mr. Hopkins stated that they do not have the answer to that at this point, but will provide that information to the Board. Member Quandt mentioned that the Applicant has stated that they could not find an instance in this country where there has been a fire with a Tesla Megapack. He found an example of a fire in Australia where the entire immediate area had to be evacuated, more than 150 firefighters were responding, and the authorities had to issue warnings about toxic smoke. After the fire investigation, it was determined that a coolant leak had led to a short circuit and the affected megapack had been placed in an offline service mode and the 24-hour monitoring was inactive. There was also a delayed connection to the monitor systems, meaning that they were not actively monitoring. Member Quandt stated that on Tesla’s website for their megapacks, they have firefighting measures. Tesla Industrial Lithium-Ion Battery Response Guide Revision 2.7, Section 5.2.2 simply states to evacuate the areas of all non-emergency personnel. 12