Moss Landing Energy Storage
A fire at Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing battery storage facility in California has destroyed thousands of lithium batteries. Experts say a scenario like this cannot happen again.
One fire at the world’s largest battery storage facility in California, it destroyed 300 megawatts of energy storage, forced the evacuation of 1,200 local residents and released smoke plumes that could pose a threat to human health and wildlife.
The incident destroyed 2% of storage capacity California’s energy supply, which the state relies on as part of its transition to using more renewable energy and less fossil fuels.
As reported by , the fire broke out on the afternoon of January 16, burning a concrete building filled with lithium batteries at the Moss Landing energy storage facility in Monterey County, California. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
The destroyed building was one of two Moss Landing battery facilities owned by the company Vistra Energybased in Texas.
Previously, its facilities had already suffered incidents – although less serious – involving the overheating of batteries and malfunctions in the fire suppression system.
The facility that caught fire this week has a suppression system water-based and – it is not yet known why – failed again.
“Battery storage systems are designed with varying levels of safety features that aim to prevent and mitigate problems such as the risk of fire – unfortunately, accidents like the one at the Moss Landing facility can still occur,” he told New Scientist, Maria Chavezda Union of Concerned Scientists.
This fire will seriously affect global storage capacity of energy. As the same magazine writes “it’s a setback for clean energy”.
“We can’t have fires like these”
Since lithium fires burn at high temperatures and emit toxic substances like hydrogen fluoride, in these cases, firefighters let the fire extinguish itself rather than fighting it directly.
But these episodes are very dangerous for the environment and public health.
The smoke plumes from these fires contain heavy metals and PFASbetter known as “forever chemicals”, explained Dustin Mulvaney from San Jose State University in California to New Scientist.
In turn, reconstruction and recovery of battery capacity may take several years – which is, at this moment, more urgent than everkeeping in mind that California is already facing the need for extensive reconstruction elsewhere due to the .
“We can’t have battery fires like this. We cannot lose 300 megawatts of batteries overnight,” said Mulvaney.
