Family wants to supplement farming with solar and battery proposal - Valley Roadrunner

Nov 02, 2024

The land in question, where the Tuluie family proposes their “Valley Center Clean Energy Project.”

The Roadrunner recently interviewed brother and sister Robin and Tania Tuluie, who want to put their “Valley Center Clean Energy Project,” near Valley Center Road.

The project was introduced to the community at the October planning group meeting, where VC Community Hall was packed with opponents. The group will formally vote on the project at their November 11 meeting.

This article gives the local family a chance in print to explain their project, which, they say, employs much safer technology than is found in lithium ion battery storage currently in use.

They were born in Germany but attended college in the U.S. He has a degree in physics, she has a degree in design.

Their parents, Trudi and Teymer moved to Valley Center in 1991. “Dad used to eat at Papa Bear’s. It was mandatory. Jack Root would draw pictures of us on napkins,” the siblings recall.

For 30 years the land has been used for farming, principally oat hay, although in the beginning they grew sunflowers. There is also an orchard on the property. Their father ran the vineyard until he died in 2014. Now that it is becoming harder for their mother Trudi to run the farming operation, Robin and Tania came up with a project to help her to make money without selling the land for development.

The property is 141 acres of which 57 acres are proposed for solar panels, with ½ acre for the batteries. This leaves 80 acres for farming.

The batteries use Lithium Iron, rather than Lithium Ion technology. “It is very different technology that we call LFP,” explained Robin Tuluie. “Lithium ion batteries are used where you need a lot of power density, like high performance cars. They start a runaway event at 300 degree F. It generates its own heat and then it gets too hot and then it ignites.”

He continued, “LFP batteries don’t exhibit runaway until 570 degrees F. When they do their thermal runaway is a lot slower. Which means the safety systems catch it much earlier.

Our supplier is Westinghouse Batteries. They never had a thermal runaway, never had a fire. Never had to call emergency services in over 100,000 hours of operation.”

Westinghouse is a global company that has a battery storage facility in New Mexico.

The family has met with Valley Center’s fire marshal Justin Loffredo. “We listened to Justin and took all of his concerns down,” said Robin Tuluie. “They all sounded reasonable. We also want to implement and follow everything the County wants us to do. The important thing is our farm has been part of this community for a long time and we care about that. We want to develop the site in the right way. We are here to listen. We are going to maintain agriculture on the site.”

He added, “We haven’t sold it because we want to develop it for beneficial use.” Solar farms and battery storage is a zoned usage on ag land, but it requires a Major Use Permit.

The panels, they say, will be from 400-500 ft from VC Road. The land between the panels and road is currently farmed and will continue to be farmed.

An interesting wrinkle is that some ag can take place between the panels. Crops can’t exceed a maximum height, and consist of fruits and vegetables like pumpkins, squash and watermelons.

“It’s called agrivoltaic and it’s what people are using around the country,” he explained. “We went for the safest battery technology there is. We are mindful that rural character is important —which is why we have wide setbacks and visual mitigation. We have different layouts we want to try out. We are using less than half the available land—so there are options.”

The power generated and stored will be available to local power “aggregators” such as San Diego Community Power and the Clean Area Alliance or SDG&E. “Our power will go to the distribution site of the substation,” said Robin. “We are talking to local aggregators, that would purchase the power. San Diego Community Power, Clean Energy Alliance. People need to get their electric power from somewhere and this is a way to do it. To use it for local use, preserve rural character and it’s safe and reliable.”

Another advantage for Valley Center having such a facility, said, Robin: “If you have an outage there is four hours of emergency power for over 4,000 homes.” It would be a 10 megawatt facility.

He added, “Unlike battery storage facilities [that keep catching on fire,] this one conforms to all the latest Fire Association standards, NFPA 855, from 2023. To the best of my understanding that is what Supervisor Jim Desmond has been advocating for. We are conforming to what Desmond wants.”

She continued, “A really important thing is it’s our own project. No outside investor or outside company. We can maintain control. There has never been a for sale sign on that ranch. Rock Hill Ranch is the original name. There were squatters on that land. We drove them off. We maintain it. We do all the fire protection. When fire says clean it up, we do it. My dad was a very proper man who liked to take care of stuff and we honor that.”

He added, “It’s clean. Nothing is dumped on it. It’s preserved.”

She concluded, “We listen to people, hear their concerns, and try to come up with the best compromise for everybody.”

Robin and Tania Tuluie, who want to build the “Valley Center Clean Energy Project,” a combination of solar panels and battery storage.

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