The Other California Fire

A second California fire that's been edged out of the news by the ones in the Los Angeles area is a fire at a battery storage facility at Moss Landing near Monterey on the Central Coast.

The site's battery energy storage facility is the largest commercial battery energy storage facility in the world. The energy storage facility stores excess daytime electrical energy for later use during periods of lower electricity production (usually at night.) Such excess energy is typically produced by renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

. . . Utilities in California are required by a 2013 law to provide significant battery storage by 2024. The Moss Landing Power Plant site has since been chosen as California's primary location to provide battery based energy storage in order to better utilize renewable energy sources such as solar and wind on a grid-wide commercial scale. On June 29, 2018 Vistra Corp announced that it planned on building at the Moss Landing Power Station site, what became the world's largest commercial electric battery energy storage site.

The point of this is to overcome the disadvantage of solar and wind generated power, that it works only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. A giant battery storage facility will store surplus power generated when the sun shines and the wind blows and return it to the grid when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. At least, that's the idea. But:

Power company Vistra​’s flagship grid battery project, housed in and around a historic power plant dating back to 1950, erupted into flames Thursday night [January 16] and prompted nearby residents to evacuate from Moss Landing, California.

The cause of the fire is not known, but local authorities have reported that much of the building that housed the batteries was destroyed as of Friday morning. That makes this by far the most destructive of the four battery fires that have afflicted the small coastal town since it became a linchpin in California’s clean energy overhaul. And the dramatic conflagration complicates the energy-storage industry’s efforts to win community support for more large batteries, which are seen as crucial to cleaning up the electrical system.

Lithium batteries in particular have developed a reputation for catching fire. There have been previous fires at the Moss Landing facility; the one last week is only the most severe. However, lithium-ion batteries of the type used in large-scale storage facilities are difficult to extinguish:

A large Li-ion fire, such as in an EV, may need to burn out. Water with copper material can be used, but this may not be available and is costly for fire halls. Increasingly, experts advise using water even with large Li-ion fires. Water lowers combustion temperature but is not recommended for battery fires containing lithium-metal.

In fact, the local fire deparment at Moss Landing had experience with battery fires at the faciity and discovered that no amount of water would extinguish such a fire. Last week, they simply stood by and let the fire burn itself out after destroying the facility over a period of several days. Exactly how or when it can be returned to service is unclear, especially since the basic design of the facility may have been part of the problem.

Statements from utility officials in the wake of the fire have referred to it as a "wake-up call" for the industry, since it reflects basic questions of both safety and reliability for basttery storage facilities, and these in turn are integral to the reliability of renewable electric power sources. If the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine, electricity needs to be stored, but if the storage systems aren't safe or reliable, it throws the whole idea of renewable energy into question.

This is just one instance where the federal government may need to find an opportunity to inject common sense into California politics.