What happened at Vistra Energy's Moss Landing battery storage facility?

A fire at Vistra Energy's Moss Landing battery storage facility in California destroyed thousands of lithium batteries – and a significant amount of the state's clean energy storage capacity

What happened at Moss Landing energy storage facility?

The fire started the afternoon of 16 January, burning through a concrete building full of lithium batteries at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in Monterey county, California. Other buildings on the site, including more battery storage facilities and a natural gas plant, were not affected.

What happened at LS Power's gateway energy storage facility?

The incident does however come not long after a fire in May at LS Power’s Gateway energy storage facility in nearby Otay Mesa, which burned for nearly two weeks.

Why are new energy storage facilities safer?

One reason is that many newer sites use a different chemistry that’s considered safer. Newer energy storage facilities also tend to isolate batteries better, so small fires won’t spread as dramatically as they did in this case. There’s still a lot we don’t know about this fire, particularly when it comes to how it started.

Why did California stop storing electricity?

Last year California had more than 11 gigawatts of utility-scale storage on the grid. Part of California’s motivation to act stems from electricity shortages. In 2020 the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) ordered rotating outages because the grid was overwhelmed with demand during a heat wave.

Where is Vistra Energy's Moss Landing power plant?

Vistra Energy's Moss Landing Power Plant was located in the unincorporated community of Moss Landing. The fire at the 300-megawatt lithium storage facility destroyed most of the building and its contents, according to county fire officials.