With all of the focus on CO2 it's easy to forget there are a lot of other, way more dangerous pollutants being released during emergencies. The Moss Landing lithium-ion fire adds hydrogen fluoride to the list. Where's my college chemistry book when I need it? The various wildfires over the last four years have spewed mega tons of particulate matter ("smoke") and who knows what else from burning cars, houses and businesses. But all the Sacramento and local government focus has been on our cars, stove tops, BBQs and water heaters.
Only now is our camera hound governor is calling for an investigation into the massive Moss Landing battery plant fire even though it is either the fourth or fifth fire there in the last four years.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A fire at the world’s largest battery storage plant in Northern California smoldered Friday after sending plumes of toxic smoke into the atmosphere, leading to the evacuation of up to 1,500 people. The blaze also shook up the young battery storage industry.
The fire at the Vistra Energy lithium battery plant in Moss Landing generated huge flames and significant amounts of smoke Thursday but had diminished significantly by Friday, Fire Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fire Protection District of Monterey County said.
Brad Watson, Vistra’s senior director of community affairs, said two “overheating events” happened at the battery plant in 2021 and 2022 because the batteries got wet. A third incident happened in 2022 in the neighboring Elkhorn battery plant that is owned by PG&E, he said.
I'm all for huge, grid-based battery storage. We need it if we have any hope for stability
California was an early adopter of battery storage and leads the nation with more than 11 gigawatts of utility-scale storage online, which can meet nearly half of the demand on the state’s main grid for four hours per day.
But like first-generation EV chargers that fail regularly, the devil is in the details. As Rahm Emanuel said "you never want a good crisis go to waste". That's the order of the day.
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