MOSS LANDING, Calif. — New agencies report a massive fire is destroying the Vistra
Energy battery storage plant in Moss Landing, one of the biggest such
facilities in the world. The blaze, which reportedly broke out late on Thursday
afternoon, has sent clouds of hazardous black smoke and toxic gases into the atmosphee,
prompting evacuations, road closures, and a significant emergency
response effort.
Moss Landing battery storage plant, Calif. on fire (picture Reuters)
The plant is a cornerstone of California’s clean energy strategy, its huge capacity to store energy from intermittent 'renewable' sources is a key component in the whacko state’s transition rush to net zero. This is not the first fire at the Moss Landing site facility which was was expanded in 2023 to hold 750 megawatts of electricity, enough to power thousands of homes.
Lithium battery fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish due not only to the high temperatures the materials burn at and toxic gases they emit, which pose risks to respiratory health, skin, and eyes, but also to the chemical nature of the reaction which does not respond to conventional fire fighting methods.
All staff at Moss Landing were safely evacuated, and emergency teams are working to contain the blaze within the plant’s concrete structure. Officials have stated that while the fire is extensive, it is “contained” to the building.
. Previous incidents in 2021 and 2022 were attributed to sprinkler malfunctions and system flaws, causing heightened scrutiny of battery storage safety. These incidents prompted California Governor Gavin Newsom to require battery plants to develop emergency response plans with local fire departments.
As authorities investigate this latest incident, concerns are rising over the safety of such facilities and their proximity to populated areas. This is a developing story, with updates expected as more information becomes available.
What we know so far is he fire is located in the northern part of the sate some 300 miles (500 km) north of the wildfires in Los Angeles. The plant contains tens of thousands of lithium batteries, which can be extremely difficult to put out if they go up in flames.
“There’s no way to sugar coat it. This is a disaster, is what it is,” Monterey County supervisor Glenn Church told KSBW-TV. But the fire is not expected to spread beyond the concrete building it is enclosed in, he added. Highway 1, located nearby, has been shut down by authorities.
The plant is around 100 miles (160 km) south of San Francisco, and
the blaze is unrelated to the ongoing wildfires in the southern
Californian city of Los Angeles, which started around 10 days ago.
This news is oce more likely to raise qustions about the safety of lithium battery technology. There are several ways in which lithium fires can pose more risk to people and property than other types of building or vehicle fires.
Thermal runaway is the most common issue with fires started by spontaneously combusting lithium-ion batteries. This is where the internal temperature of the battery quickly rises, usually because a damaged cell has overheated, generating more and more heat which in turn damages adjacent cells, createing a self-sustaining cycle.
It’s a rapid process and comes with such high temperatures that it can be difficult to tackle in the same way as a normal fire — water is especially dangerous to use for this fire type due to the creation of flammable hydrogen gas when it reacts with lithium.
Some lithium batteries can also release oxygen as they burn, adding more supply to the fire and intensifying the situation, even when there is little oxygen outside of the battery itself. This makes it hard to starve the fire of oxygen, a common tactic for other fire types.
The speed at which a lithium battery can overheat also risks explosions, something seen in waste management facilities when people have improperly disposed of their devices in regular waste collections.
Volatile and unpredictable, it’s easy to see why lithium-ion battery fires have earned a distinct reputation within the fire safety community.
The proponents of green energy “wind/solar plus storage” systems do not seem to like specifying storage capacity properly in Watt-Hour units. This leads to uniformed folks assuming there is far more energy than there really is. Reports say this facility provides energy stored during the day for use overnight which might lead some to conclude that it can provide 750 MW for 12 hours or more (I.e. 9,000 MWH). However, it has been more common for these systems to be rated based on 4 hours of delivery. We learn from the facility owner's website the plant can provide backup of 750 MW and 3000 MWh So it follows that its rating is based on 4 hours of duration. Not much backup for 'thousands of homes' (or one Big Tech AI data centre,) considering periods of dunkelflaute in Europe this winter have lasted for over a week in some areas.
The Moss landing facility is, in fact, rated at 3,000 MWH. But many systems are only designed to provide frequency stability support to balance wind/solar short term fluctuation and may only have enough capacity to provide a few minutes of rated output.
NET ZERO ARCHIVE:
The True Cost Of The Green Energy Boom Is Now Being Realized
For four decades we have been fed a constant stream of propaganda assuring us that green energy was the only way forward if we wanted to secure supplies of the energy essential to a modern society while preventing the environmental catastrophes that would be the inevitable consequence of climate change caused by the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emitted by human industrial, commercial and social activity. ... Continue reading >>>
Electricity cuts and power crisis predicted for Britain’s New Year Holiday
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Now Even ‘Hockey Stick’ Mann Admits The ‘Pause’ In Global Warming Is Real
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German Scientist Confims Climate Change Ia A Politically Motivated Scam
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It Looks As If Carbon Credits Scam Has INCREASED CO2 Emissions
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When Governments Play GOD: The TRUTH About GLOBAL GEOENGINEERING
After a personal admission that he 'went soft' on the elitist malfeasance, misinformation and power grabbing which poses a much greater threat to civilisation than any pandemic, climate event or political coup ever can, the auhor takes aim at the loonytoons plan to control climate change by blocking the sun's rays with chemical dust ... Continue reading >>>
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The usage of coal is now at record highs:
Electricity cuts and power crisis predicted for Britain’s New Year Holiday
Shapps carefully omits to mention that the government’s only contingency plan for providing the power needed to meet peaks of demand (a sudden cold snap for example) is to spark up the thousands of diesel generators the earth loving politicians have concealed in goods containers on compounds sited around the country. Yes you read that right, diesel generators ...
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Several times now it has looked as if the climate chance scare was over as the enthusiasm of climate scitentists for changing real world data to fit in with the predictions of their mathematical models has been exposed. But as the scare was never about the environment, but was a scam to redistribute wealth from rich to poor countries, the politicians are throwing their propaganda budgets behind it again.
p>Global Warming Is Not Causing Any Polar Ice Cap Meltdown Says NASA
Updated data from NASA satellite instruments reveal the Earth’s polar ice caps have not receded at all since the satellite instruments began measuring the ice caps in 1979. Since the end of 2012, moreover, total polar ice extent has largely remained above the post-1979 average. The updated data contradict one of the most frequently asserted global warming claims – that global warming is causing the polar ice caps to recede.
The Truth About Coal And The Lies Of The Elite
So much for all the COP 26 banter late last year. Let me remind you. The elites all flew in on their private jets and promptly told us we’re all (royal we) getting off fossil fuels and killing coal.So how’s that turning out?
The usage of coal is now at record highs:
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Official Advice - Prepare For Blackouts This Winter
The UK
government is putting plans together for days of organised blackouts this winter, in what they call
a "reasonable worst-case scenario" for energy shortages, according to reports in manstream media. Naturally they are blaming this on the embargo on importing gas from Russia but in reality Britain has never imported any more than a small amout of its gas from Russia. The real reason politicians and energy company CEOs are panicking is entirely due to their obession with obtaining all our energy from intermittent sources like wind and sunshine ...
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ordinary people will! Together we can enforce a fair price and affordable energy for all," tweeted "Don't Pay UK," an anonymous group spearheading the effort to have more than one million Brits boycott paying their power bill by Oct. 1.UK Energy Crisis Deepens as prices and demand skyrocket while supplies shrink to critical levels
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... Continue reading >>>Shale Gas Salvation? Frack Off ....
A few months ago, before the June oil prices crash, the US oil industry was ebullient. "It is too late for OPEC to stop the shale revolution", industry pundits squawked, "OPEC can’t stop the shale industry" – screamed banner headlines in the usually restrained financial press. But if a week is a lon=g time in politics, three months is eternity in the oil business.House battery to store energy will 'change entire infrastructure of the world' - or maybe not
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Most of the hyped green energy solutions to generate electricity from wind or sunshine are so obviously flawed the only thing that makes them economically viable is that governments offer huge subsidies to generators. This in turn makes the sustainables so expensive that consumers cannot afford the intermittent energy they produce.EXPLORE:
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