East Point Energy, the firm behind a proposal to build the Flat Rock Battery Energy Storage System facility in Comfort, Texas, said in a statement to MySA that it is shifting priorities away from the project but did not provide further details.
“We’d like to thank the local community for their collaboration and look forward to strengthening grid reliability throughout Texas,” the statement read.
In a January 27 Facebook post, Kendall County Judge Shane Stolarczyk informed residents of the news, adding, “East Point Energy indicated that they will persue more optimal opportunities elsewhere.”
A battery energy storage system (BESS) facility is a power storage site made up of large batteries that stores energy. In the event of grid instability, these facilities can be used as a stopgap to keep utilities online.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, this technology, which often relies on lithium batteries, has led to “legitimate safety concerns” over the potential for lithium battery fires. These fires are extremely difficult to put out, and they can release harmful gases into the air, per the EPA. Officials in Kerr and Gillespie counties have recently raised concerns over wildfire risks, evacuation concerns and environmental harm.
The Lone Star State was the fastest-growing battery storage market in 2024, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office website.
In her own social media post, Kendall County Precinct 2 Commissioner Andra Wisian said local officials took steps to increase regulatory control over the land where the development was proposed, and those steps “reflected the Court’s responsibility to protect public safety, with a focus on fire access, emergency response, environmental protection, and first-responder safety, not on stopping a specific technology or project.”
“These facilities can be proposed near any waterway — whether Flat Rock Creek, the Cibolo, the Guadalupe, or elsewhere in Kendall County — which is why clear safety standards matter countywide,” Wisan added in her social media post.