Largest Lithium-Ion Battery Energy Storage Facility in California on Fire
TapTechNews May 21st news, on the afternoon of May 15 local time, a fire broke out at a lithium-ion battery energy storage facility in California, the US, which was once praised as the world's largest, and it continued to burn for five days, resulting in the forced evacuation of some surrounding residents.
The fire occurred at the Gateway energy storage facility in San Diego, which is owned by the grid infrastructure developer LS Power Company and has a power storage capacity of 250 megawatts. The fire brigade initially controlled the fire within 24 hours, and the evacuation order for the residents was also lifted.
However, the fire reignited twice and caused severe damage to the building, including burning through part of the roof, forcing the fire department to issue the evacuation order again. The California Fire Department said that harmful gases hindered the approach of firefighters.
According to the update of the California Fire Department on Sunday evening, the on-site situation has greatly improved, although still a slight wisp of smoke can be seen. A total of 40 firefighters were dispatched to extinguish the big fire.
The San Diego battery energy storage facility went online in 2020. At that time, the grid infrastructure developer LS Power claimed that it was the world's largest battery energy storage project. Using lithium-ion batteries from LG Chem Company, the capacity of this facility beat the record previously held by a 150 megawatt-hour project in Australia, but later was surpassed by other facilities.
Although lithium-ion battery fires are rare, they have damaged the important image of this clean energy technology in the energy transition. Such fires are extremely difficult to fight because the burning lithium-ion battery will generate oxygen by itself. Therefore, although water-based fire extinguishers can cool the burning battery, it is rarely able to completely extinguish the fire.
The fire hazard and the resulting toxic gases have become a common reason for residents to oppose the construction of lithium-ion battery energy storage facilities near residential areas.
At the same time, the energy storage industry is constantly developing alternative plans other than lithium-ion, claiming that these plans are safer. Energy storage plays a key role in the energy transition. It can store surplus wind and solar energy for use when there is not enough sunlight or wind. The International Energy Agency estimates that by 2030, the world needs 1500 gigawatts of energy storage capacity, which is six times the current level, in order to achieve the goal of tripling the amount of renewable energy generation.
TapTechNews noticed that at the end of April, a lithium battery energy storage container in a commercial area in Germany also caught fire. During the firefighting process, due to the opening of the container in a smoking state, an explosion with a flash of flame occurred instantly, resulting in the injury of two firefighters.
According to the incomplete statistics of Weike Network Energy Storage, as of now in 2023, there have been more than 70 energy storage safety accidents globally, among which South Korea has the most, followed by the US.