Oshtemo Township BESS Project: What We Know So Far
Oshtemo Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan — A Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project is currently in planning for Oshtemo Township.
According to publicly filed county records, startup developer NewEdge Power signed a land lease agreement with Sable Farms, LLC, for property located on South Van Kal Street, across from the ITC power substation in the farm field.
- The lease was executed on December 19, 2023, and officially filed with the Kalamazoo County Clerk’s Office on February 1, 2024 (click to view the lease).
Developer Presentation
On August 14, 2025, three representatives from NewEdge Power appeared before the Oshtemo Township Planning Commission to introduce a proposed Battery Energy Storage System for Oshtemo Township. NewEdge employees Ms. Rachel Walker, the Director of Permitting, Mr. Steve Barna, the Chief Development Officer / Co-Founder, and Ms. Donna Marceau, the Senior Director of Real Estate stated during the meeting that the team did not yet have detailed project specifications, but speculated — based on their other developments — that the Oshtemo BESS would likely be utility-scale in size between 5 to 15 acres and store 100 to 300 megawatts in Tesla Superpack batteries the size of semi truck trailers.
The presentation described the project in positive terms, highlighting its “modern safety systems” and “renewable energy benefits.” According to meeting observers, the NewEdge team referred to a lot of bad stuff out there about BESS and then encouraged township officials to focus on more favorable research about BESS, referencing a paper from New York that they said presented the technology in a positive light.
However, questions were raised by several board members, and one member of the public spoke in strong opposition, citing health, safety, and evacuation concerns for the hundreds of families who live within the two to eight mile evacuation radius seen in other recent BESS fires around the US. According to public records, the leased parcel discussed during the meeting is located near that resident’s home
It remains unclear whether this meeting satisfied the public hearing requirement for a BESS project under Michigan’s Public Act 233 of 2023, which governs large-scale energy developments. It was not disclosed during the meeting that NewEdge Power had previously executed a land lease with Sable Farms, LLC nine months earlier.
Watch the August 14, 2025 BESS Presentation
Oshtemo Township BESS Location
South Van Kal Street, Oshtemo Township, across from the ITC power substation
Lack of Updates from Oshtemo Township's Boards
Since that August 2025 presentation, a memo on the project status was presented at the Oshtemo Township board meeting on 10/28/2025.
- Residents have expressed growing concern over the lack of transparency, particularly as other Michigan communities — including Comstock Township, Blendon Township, Zeeland Township, and Richland — have faced public opposition to similar projects.
- The meeting minutes on August 14, 2025 listed NewEdge as an "applicant" however residents have been told there is no application on file with the township. Why meeting minutes were approved with this error was questioned and blamed on the meeting's scribe. *Meeting minutes were corrected at the Oshtemo Planning Department Meeting on 10/23/2025.
Statewide Context
Michigan’s new energy siting law (PA 233 of 2023) allows the MPSC to approve BESS projects even if local governments deny them, limiting township control over the project's lighting, sound, setbacks and fencing.
The Township Still Has a Duty to Protect Residents
State law may limit how far a township can go inside a PA 233 “compatible renewable energy ordinance,” but that does not mean the Township is powerless. Michigan townships still have broad authority to adopt and enforce ordinances for the public health, safety, and general welfare of persons and property, including fire protection and other safety-related regulations.
That authority matters here.
A Battery Energy Storage System is not just a land-use question. It raises township-wide concerns involving fire response, evacuation planning, emergency access, road use, water supply, stormwater, hazardous conditions, and protection of nearby homes, farms, wells, wetlands, and public safety resources.
PA 233 limits how restrictive a township’s energy ordinance can be if the Township wants it treated as a “compatible renewable energy ordinance.” A compatible ordinance must allow energy facilities and cannot be more restrictive than the standards in the statute. But the Township still has other tools available outside of simply writing a weak energy ordinance and hoping for the best.
The Township can adopt and enforce generally applicable ordinances that apply across the entire township, not just to one energy project. These may include ordinances addressing:
- fire prevention, emergency response access, and hazardous conditions;
- noise nuisance standards that protect residents at their homes;
- road use, haul routes, construction traffic, and damage repair;
- stormwater, erosion, runoff, and groundwater protection;
- emergency communication, evacuation, and shelter-in-place planning;
- lighting, glare, screening, and nuisance impacts;
- public water pressure and emergency water-use concerns;
- protection of residents, farms, animals, wetlands, and nearby sensitive land uses.
The key distinction is this: the Township may be limited in writing a BESS-specific ordinance that is stricter than PA 233, but it is not required to ignore its police power duty to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the entire community.
Local control should not mean doing the bare minimum. It should mean using every lawful tool still available to protect residents before a high-risk industrial-scale project is placed next to homes, farms, children, wetlands, and drinking-water resources.
A “workable” ordinance for a developer is not the same thing as a protective ordinance for residents.
The Township’s job is not to make this project easy. The Township’s job is to make sure the people who live here are safe.
What Comes Next
Residents continue to:
- Insist the Township to adopt every lawful protection it still can.
- Demand transparency.
- Get independent experts.
- Submit written concerns.
- Speak during public comment.
- Preserve objections.
- Push for local ordinances that apply township-wide.
- Pressure state lawmakers to amend PA 233.
- And vote in August and November for people who understand they took an oath to uphold the Michigan Constitution to put residents first.
This page will be updated as new information becomes available from township records, MPSC filings, or public statements.
-Last updated 105/29/2026 16:01