Battery storage fire in California sparks widespread safety concerns

Fire crews took 24 hours to “get a handle on” the battery storage fire at the Gateway Energy Storage Facility in Otay Mesa near San Diego

The fire at the battery storage facility is believed to have been caused by lithium-ion batteries as they are prone to thermal runaway. San Diego Union Tribune photo by Rob Nikolewski.

This article was published by The Energy Mix on June 7, 2024.

By Christopher Bonasia

A nearly two-week-long fire at a battery energy storage facility in California highlighted the risks associated with emerging battery storage technologies that are central to the clean energy transition.

Fire crews took 24 hours to “get a handle on” the flare that erupted May 15 at the 250-megawatt Gateway Energy Storage Facility in Otay Mesa near San Diego, reports Fox 5 News. Two days later it reignited—and then smouldered for more than a week.

Surrounding businesses were evacuated and a 600-foot safety barrier was established to keep civilians away from possibly dangerous levels of hydrogen near the facility.

“The fire is what we call ‘thermal runaway’—(meaning) the lithium-ion batteries are kind of ignited in their burning, so what we are doing right now is trying to contain the toxic fumes and the smoke, and the fire obviously,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Patrick Walker, during the response to the second fire.

“But it’s one of those processes that could be long-duration.”

The facility’s lithium-ion batteries are believed to be the source of the fire. They are prone to thermal runaway, a chain reaction that results in the battery producing heat more rapidly than it can dissipate. Internal battery temperatures can spike to around 400°C (752°F) in milliseconds, and the intense heat driving the fires make them extremely difficult to put out.

Fires like the one at Gateway have made people wary of battery energy storage facilities. Polling by Heatmap shows them to be the least popular form of carbon-free power. While fires at large energy storage facilities may be rare, Heatmap says respondents may have lumped them together with the relatively more common fires seen in lithium-ion-powered devices like scooters and e-bikes.

About an hour’s drive north from Otay Mesa, residents of Eden Valley are fighting a battery storage project of up to 320 megawatts at the site of a former equestrian school, reports KPBS.

“I don’t feel safe, and my kids don’t feel safe either,” Amanda Black, who lives next to the proposed site, told the regional news outlet.

But experts say battery energy storage will be crucial to the clean energy transition, especially to harness intermittent sources like wind and solar. California has been pushing the deployment of storage batteries for its transition to clean energy and is already a world leader in battery storage capacity.

 

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