New Owners Submit Management Plan for Montague Road Battery Storage Facility
Compact battery storage container from Blue Wave Solar. Photo: Blue Wave Solar
Report on the Meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals, February 12, 2026
This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.
Present
Everald Henry (Chair), David Ahlfeld, David Sloviter, and Philip White. Absent: Craig Meadows
Staff: Jacinta Williams (Planner)
Lodestar Energy and its subsidiary, LSE Fornax LLC, applied to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) for acceptance of a new management and operation plan for its Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) on land owned by W.D. Cowls at 451 Montague Road, due to a change in ownership. The project had previously received special permits from the ZBA in FY18, FY19, and FY26. The most recent special permit granted in August 2025 (FY 26) allowed the BESS to be located farther from the existing solar farm.
Sam Valone and Jeff Macel from Lodestar stated that Peoples Bank of Holyoke, which is financing the project, maintained that since the solar array and battery storage were not constructed at the same time, the financing requires the ownership of the existing solar farm to be different from the unbuilt BESS. To meet the requirement of a separate owner and to be eligible for tax credits, the property was transferred to a newly formed company, LSE Fornax II. The same individuals are principals of both the existing and new partnerships, and they stated there would be no change to the site plan.
The battery storage system will serve the energy produced on-site. The solar farm is now operational and connected to the Eversource grid on Montague Road, and the BESS is scheduled for construction this summer. The changes to the management plan will indicate clearly which entity is responsible for each part of the project.
ZBA Chair Everald Henry thought that Special Permits are not transferable. Other ZBA members were sympathetic to the applicants, calling the plan reasonable. All board members were reluctant to approve something that could be illegal. Therefore, the public meeting was extended to March 26 to allow staff time to seek an opinion from town counsel. This also gives the applicant enough time if a new special permit is required.
Could you share the blueprint/plans for the BESS facility at 451 Montague Rd?
The link above goes to an article about a similar facility on a nearby parcel on Sunderland Rd to be installed by different developers.
Could you share the plans for that facility as well so we can see them?
I appreciate the thought to site these facilities under existing power lines.
I’m mainly concerned about risk management and accident mitigation.
When these batteries explode there should be a containment system required similar to that for large above ground fuel oil and gasoline tanks. I’ve seen no current BESS systems with such a containment system.
While most of the homes in the area are on Amherst town water, it’s not clear to me that all of them are. There are likely private wells, especially on the Leverett side of the town line <400 yards away from this site, and in Sunderland near the other site, whose water will be contaminated when these BESS systems fail.
Appropriate planning needs to account and plan for BESS failure, not assume that it won't/can't happen.
I don’t know why the Chair ruled that Special Permits are not transferable and legal opinion should be sought. It has been my understanding from more than fifty years observing zoning and planning meetings for the League of Women Voters Observer Corps and now the Indy as well as a member of this esteemed board that Special permits go with the land, not the ownership, unless there is a specific condition that it lapses on change of ownership.
If a solar installation has already happened, what is accomplished by revoking a permit? That is why many permits require new owners have their management plans approved at a public meeting. Unfortunately, the public no longer has access to any permits on the Town website. Unfortunate, because I find them a valuable source of information for writing Indy articles as well as preparation for hearings.
Here is a link to the management plan submitted by Lodestar: https://www.amherstma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/84757/Management_Plan_and_Acknowledgement_of_Assumption_-_LSE_Fornax_LLC_to_LSE_Fornax_II_LLC_20260128doc
The 2025 modification to the special permits from 2018 and 2019 is https://www.amherstma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/80814/UPDATED—ZBA-2026-01-Pulpit-Hill-Solar_Project-Application-Report-20250811?bidId=
Hope this helps. To see the actual permits may require a visit to Town Hall.
I still stick by my assertion, that there nothing in the found permits why signing off on the new owner’s request would be illegal.