SHERBURNE - Residents of Sherburne took to the streets on Sunday to protest a proposed lithium-ion battery storage facility. Their message to the developers was clearly written on their signs, “Sherburne is not for sale.”

Last November, the clean energy company NexAmp approached the town of Sherburne and informed them that they had leased property on Knapp Road with the intention of building a lithium-ion battery storage facility on the property. The facility would allow the batteries to store energy from NYSEG’s electrical grid during off peak hours and sell it back to NYSEG during high demand times.

Sherburne residents have opposed the idea since it was introduced. More than 600 people have already signed a petition opposing the storage facility and the petition is continuing to circulate through the community. One sign at Sunday’s protest read “If it’s so safe, build it in your backyard.” Those opposed to the facility, site safety concerns as one of the major drawbacks to this type of development.

“The risks are great. They are safer than they used to be, but they still are not safe. We just don’t have the infrastructure to support those risks,” said Knapp Road resident Judith Webb. Local officials have discussed fires that occurred at other battery energy storage sites that burned for days, some even required nearby homes to be evacuated. Lithium-ion batteries can ignite when exposed to water. The fires are often fast, extremely hot and very difficult to extinguish. It can take thousands of gallons of water to contain and they have been known to reignite and release toxins into the air or water.

Webb has sited the location of the proposed facility as a huge problem. Knapp Road is a narrow, 1.7 mile long road with no water supply. “We have no fire hydrants, no reservoir. In order to control a battery fire, you need thousands of gallons of water. We would have to get that from pumpers.”

In addition to the water availability issue, Webb said the facility would damage the natural resources found in the area. “This is a natural area. We have Handsome Brook which is a trout stream protected by the DEC. We are close to the Brookfield State Forest. It’s a rural town road with two bridges,” Webb said. She explained that just the process of building the facility would be difficult with the current road conditions.

“There is no mechanism to warn the community of a disaster or to compensate residents who would be forced to leave their homes,” she explained.

The Town of Sherburne passed a battery storage moratorium on January 15.

They have said they intend to extend the moratorium for another six months while they work on a battery storage law. The Town of Columbus passed a battery storage law in 2025. While that law did not strictly prohibit battery storage facilities, it does regulate what locations are suitable for their use and the vicinity of the systems to other types of properties.

“It’s important to keep fighting this,” Webb said. “The communities that have succeeded in keeping these facilities out are the ones that have shown reasons why the local residents oppose it. Some developers have walked away voluntarily when they see that.”

The next public hearing on the battery storage facility will take place at 7 p.m. on July 8th at the Sherburne Town Hall.