Fire at world’s largest battery facility is a clean energy setback

A fire at the world’s largest battery storage plant in California destroyed 300 megawatts of energy storage, forced the evacuation of 1,200 area residents and released plumes of smoke that could pose a health threat to humans and wildlife. The accident knocked out 2% of California’s energy storage capacity, which the state relies on as part of its shift to using more renewable energy and less fossil fuels.

The fire began on the afternoon of January 16, burning through a concrete building filled with lithium batteries at the Moss Landing energy storage facility in Monterey County, California. Other buildings on the site, including more battery storage facilities and a natural gas plant, were not affected. By the morning of January 17, local officials reported minimal flames and smoke.

“This is actually more than just a fire, it’s a wake-up call for the industry,” he said. Glen Churcha member of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, during a press conference. “If we want to move forward with sustainable energy, we need a safe battery system.” After the press conference on the morning of January 17, the fire broke out It broke out again that afternoonWhich led to the evacuation order being extended.

Because lithium fires burn at high temperatures and emit toxic substances such as hydrogen fluoride, firefighters let this type of fire burn on its own rather than deal with it directly. There were no reports of injuries related to the fire, and air monitoring systems did not detect any signs of hydrogen fluoride. But the plumes of smoke from the fire likely contain heavy metals and PFAS, known as forever chemicals, she says. Dustin Mulvaney At San Jose State University in California.

Local officials They currently advise Monterey County residents are asked to stay home and keep their doors and windows closed. Inhaled heavy metals and PFAS can pose a health risk to area residents and farmworkers. Mulvaney says these substances can also affect wildlife, such as sea otters that live in the wetlands of the nearby Elkhorn Slough salt marsh.

The destroyed building was one of two battery facilities in Moss Landing owned by Texas-based Vistra Energy. Its facilities have previously witnessed less serious incidents involving overheating of batteries and malfunctions in the fire suppression system. But Vistra Energy officials said during the press conference that the facility that caught fire this week had a water-based suppression system, and it was unclear why it failed. They are still investigating the root cause of the fire.

Despite this incident, large-scale battery systems for electricity grids saw a 97 percent reduction in failures worldwide – often linked to fires – between 2018 and 2023, according to a new report. a report By the Electric Power Research Institute, a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC.

“This dramatic decline has been observed despite the fact that utility-scale storage deployments continue to increase at high rates,” he says. Maria Chavez In the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Battery storage systems are designed with multiple levels of safety features intended to prevent and mitigate issues such as fire risks – unfortunately, incidents like the one that occurred at the Moss Landing facility can still occur.”

California is also better prepared than most U.S. states to respond to such incidents: It has a state law that requires local governments to develop emergency response plans with battery developers, Mulvaney says. He described the need to learn from such events in designing future battery storage systems.

But losing most or all of the 300-megawatt facility at Moss Landing would significantly reduce Vistra Energy’s 750 megawatts of energy storage capacity at the site, and a total of 13,300 megawatts in California. Energy storage capacity.

Mulvaney says Moss Landing serves the state’s power grid by storing renewable energy and reducing reliance on fossil fuels like natural gas plants. The process of rebuilding and rebuilding battery capacity could take several years, which is a big ask, given that California is already facing the need for extensive rebuilding elsewhere due to the Los Angeles wildfires.

“We can’t have batteries igniting like that,” Mulvaney says. “We can’t lose 300 megawatts of batteries overnight like this.”