Fire Probe Starts at Big California Lithium-Ion Battery Storage Site

As a significant hearth abated close to San Jose, Calif., that ravaged one of many world’s largest battery power storage services, investigators have begun an onsite probe of the trigger. The blaze that started Jan. 16 destroyed most of a 300-MW lithium-ion battery array at Vistra Power’s 750-MW Moss Touchdown storage facility at a decommissioned gasoline energy plant web site. 

“There are nonetheless no lively flames, whereas a restricted quantity of smoldering is constant to abate,” Vistra mentioned in an announcement posted to an incident website. Individually, the U.S. Environmental Safety Company issued an announcement saying the air across the plant is secure. 

Vistra has employed a structural engineering agency, unidentified by the corporate at story posting time, to information the hassle to take away remaining batteries when situations permit and has retained different “exterior specialists” associated to the investigation, says a spokesperson. LG Chem, the battery producer, is on-site, and data is being shared.

At a Jan. 21 assembly, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to approve an emergency declaration and to induce that Moss Touchdown stay offline whereas the fireplace is investigated. “We’re calling for nothing lower than a full dedication … till the state of affairs is absolutely secure,” County Supervisor Glenn Church mentioned previous to the assembly.

”We’ve dedicated to work carefully with our neighborhood companions and native
officers to find out how finest we might help, and we’ll have extra
info to share on this within the coming days,”  one other Vistra spokesperson instructed the board.

‘Preparedness’

County emergency response officers declared the fireplace a significant operations incident and a neighborhood catastrophe that required closing close by Freeway 1 and one-day evacuation of an estimated 1,500 folks.

A county hearth chief, Joel Mendoza, mentioned on Jan. 17 {that a} hearth suppression system housed in one of many facility’s battery racks had failed, permitting the fireplace to unfold. 

No injury value estimate was supplied.

“The incident exhibits extra effort in preparedness is required in addition to “containment and making certain that fires don’t unfold,” says Dustin Mulvaney, an environmental research professor at San Jose State College and skilled on lithium-ion batteries who displays California’s fast-growing power storage sector. “This trade must do extra work on emergency response plans,” that are mandated in California, he provides. “Most different states don’t require emergency response plans, so different states may wish to think about them.”

However Mulvaney believes the fireplace “can have little to no impression on battery power storage growth in California,” which he says might develop to 52 GW  in place in 20 years, up from the present degree of 13.4 GW, of which 85% is utility-scale storage.

“This fireplace occasion might trigger some proposed tasks to revamp batteries housed in buildings,” as some are at Moss Touchdown, Mulvaney says, “nevertheless it won’t gradual the deployment trajectory.”

Operated by Iriving, Texas-based Vistra Power, the power shops surplus power generated from renewable sources and releases it during times of excessive demand. 

Expansions

Moss Touchdown has undergone two expansions since its unique 300-MW growth was accomplished in 2020, the world the place the fireplace occurred and was confined to. Previous security incidents embody a number of battery melting occasions in 2022. with suppression stopping a hearth.

In a 2024 report, ENR famous completion of the battery web site’s third enlargement that added 350 MW of capability. Everybody on the location was given stop-work authority, it notes, and design-builder Burns & McDonnell labored carefully with native hearth officers and educated workers on thermal runaway dangers and hearth prevention responses.

It couldn’t be decided at ENR posting time if the agency is helping with the fireplace investigation.

The American Clear Energy Affiliation last year released a model ordinance for states and municipalities in regulating power storage system security, allowing, siting, environmental compliance and decommissioning. 

Regardless of the occasion, long run international battery storage market development is predicted to be robust, though impacts within the U.S. from tariffs and different Trump administration rumored commerce measures stay unclear.