Fire in the largest battery installation in the world is a reverse of clean energy

A fire in the largest battery storage factory in the world in California has destroyed 300 energy storage megawatts, forced 1,200 residents in the region to evacuate and release smoke plumes that could be a threat to humans and fauna health. The incident has eliminated 2% of California's energy storage capacity, on which the State is based in the context of its transition to use more renewable power and less fossil fuels.

The fire started in the afternoon of January 16, burning through a concrete building full of lithium batteries at the Moss Landing energy storage installation in the county of Monterey, California. Other site buildings, including more battery storage facilities and a natural gas plant, have not been affected. On the morning of January 17, local officials reported minimum flames and smoke.

“It's really much more than a fire, it's an alarm clock for this industry,” said Glenn churchMember of the Comté de Monterey supervisors at a press conference. “If we are going to move forward with lasting energy, we need a safe battery system in place.” After the press conference on the morning of January 17, the fire Flared again this afternoonleading to an extension of the evacuation order.

Since lithium is burning at high temperatures and emits toxic substances such as hydrogen fluoride, firefighters allow this type of fire burning rather than engaging directly with it. There was no injury report associated with fire, and air monitor systems have detected any signs of hydrogen fluoride. But the plumes of smoke from the fire are likely to have contained heavy metals and PFAs, better known as Forever Chemicals, said Dustin Mulvaney at the State University of San Jose in California.

Local officials currently advise The residents of the county of Monterey stay inside and keep their doors and their closed windows. Inhaled heavy metals and APFA could present a risk to health for residents of the region and agricultural workers. These substances could also have an impact on fauna like sea otters that live in the wetlands of the Sough Elkhorn Sough Elkhorn marsh, explains Mulvaney.

The destroyed building was one of the two landing foam battery installations belonging to the company based in Texas Vistra Energy. Its installations previously suffered less serious incidents involving batteries and overheating dysfunctions in the fire suppression system. But the installation that ignited this week has a water -based suppression system and it is not clear why it failed, said Vistra Energy officials at the press conference. They still investigate the deep cause of the fire.

Despite this incident, battery systems on the scale of public services for electricity networks have experienced a 97% drop in failures in the world – which are often linked to fire – between 2018 and 2023, according to a report By the Electric Power Research Institute, a non -profit organization based in Washington DC.

“This massive decrease was observed despite the fact that public service storage deployments continue to increase at high rates,” said Maria Chavez to the union of the scientists concerned. “Battery storage systems are designed with several levels of safety functionalities which aim to prevent and mitigate problems such as fire risk – unfortunately, accidents like that of Mosse Landing Installation can still occur.”

California is also better prepared than most American states to respond to such incidents: it has a state law forcing local governments to develop emergency intervention plans with battery developers, Mulvaney explains. He described the need to learn from events like this in the design of future battery storage systems.

But the loss of most or all of the installation of 300 megawatts in Mosse Landing will put a serious series in the overall capacity of 750 megawatts on site of Vistra Energy, and the total of California California megawatts Energy storage capacity.

Moss Landing served the state's electricity network by storing renewable energies and reducing dependence on fossil fuels such as natural gas factories, Mulvaney explains. Reconstruction and strengthening the capacity of the battery could take several years – a large demand, since California is already faced with the need for in -depth reconstruction due to the Los Angeles forest fires.

“We cannot have battery fires like this,” explains Mulvaney. “We cannot lose 300 megawatts of battery overnight like this.”