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WE BEGIN TONIGHT ... WITH THE CENTRAL COAST POISED TO BE HOME TO ONE OF THE LARGEST.. IF NOT THE LARGEST.. ENERGY STORAGE FACILITY IN THE WORLD.. THAT'S CLOSE TO BECOMING A REALITY IN MOSS LANDING.. AFTER A KEY VOTE TODAY BY COUNTY PLANNERS.. WITH MORE ON THAT DECISION.. AND WHAT IT MEANS WE GO TO ACTION NEWS REPORTER FELIX CORTEZ LIVE NEAR THE MOSS LANDING POWER PLANT.. #### DAN WHAT IT MEANS .. IS THAT NEW LIFE IS BEING PUMPED INTO THE MOSS LANDING POWER PLANT.. AND IT COMES IN THE FORM OF CLEAN AND RENEWABLE ENERGY.### F NEW ENERGY BEING PUMPED BACK INTO THE LITTLE USED MOSS LANDING POWER PLANT.. AS COUNTY PLANNERS GIVE THE GO AHEAD FOR TESLA AND PGE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH A NEW ENERGY STORAGE FACILITY T-2 WEDNESDAY'S UNANIMOUS APPROVAL BY THE COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION COMES JUST MONTHS AFTER ANOTHER PROJECT BY VISTRA ENERGY WAS APPROVED.. BOTH PROJECTS WILL TAKE SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY.. STORE IT.. AND MAKE IT AVAILABLE DURING SPIKES IN ENERGY DEMAND T-2 HUNDREDS OF LITHIUM BATTERIES WILL STORE THE ENERGY AND USE EXISTING POWER LINES TO TRANSMIT IT BACK OUT TO MONTEREY COUNTY AND PARTS OF SILICON VALLEY.. COUNTY SUPERVISOR JOHN PHILLIPS DESCRIBING IT AS AN EXCITING TIME FOR THE CENTRAL COAST PG&E AND TESLA HOPING TO BEGIN CONSTRUCTION ON THEIR FACILITY NEXTH MONTH.. WITH COMPLETION EXPECTED BY END OF THIS YEAR.. DAN.### TODAY'S DECISION BY THE MONTEREY COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION OPENS A 10 DAY PERIOD FOR ANYONE TO FILE AN APPEAL.. THERE HAD BEEN INITIAL OPPOSITION BY THE "CALIFORNIA UNION FOR RELIABLE ENERGY" BUT THEY WITHDREW THEIR OPPOSITION AFTER REACHING AN AGREEMENT WITH PG&E.###

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New life is being pumped into the aging and little-used Moss Landing power plant, this time it’s coming in the form of clean and renewable energy.And a key decision made by county planners Wednesday morning paves the way for Moss Landing to be one of the largest, if not the largest, energy storage facility in the world.“It’s huge for the area and as you know the power plant has been gradually shutting down and they producing about one-tenth of the power they used to produce in the past and that hurts us from a tax standpoint,” said Monterey County Supervisor John Phillips.Wednesday morning the Monterey County Planning Commission unanimously approved a joint project between Tesla and PG&E to build a facility that will store wind and solar power and then make it available for use during periods of high energy demand.A similar but larger project by Vistra energy was approved just months ago.“Certainly combined this is going to be the largest battery facility in the world so it’s a big boost to our community and to our county,” said Phillips.Both projects will use hundreds of lithium batteries to store the clean-renewable energy and then use existing power lines to transmit energy around Monterey County and parts of Silicon Valley.“It just makes sense you have the transmission lines coming in, you’re producing the power during the day… but then you’re losing it before you need it so it just makes sense that you store it and then it just goes out,” said Phillips.The second facility by Tesla and PG&E had recently come under fire by the California Union for Reliable Energy, citing potential environmental impacts.By the time the project had reached planning commissioners, the union had withdrawn their objections after reaching an undisclosed settlement with PG&E.Tesla and PG&E hope to break ground on their project next month with completion scheduled for the end of the year