Environment & Energy

Caribbeans

(1,074 posts) Sun Jan 26, 2025, 03:54 PM Sunday

Morro Bay residents were assured battery storage is safe. Moss Landing fire said otherwise

Vistra’s Moss Landing battery storage facility caught fire on Jan. 16 prompting the evacuation of about 1,200 people. Courtesy of KTVU

Morro Bay residents were assured battery storage is safe. Moss Landing fire said otherwise

SanLuisObispo.com | January 26, 2025

The massive lithium battery fire at Moss Landing confirmed the worst fears of many Californians — including the many Morro Bay residents who have been fighting for years to stop a similar project proposed in their beach community.

Unfortunately, the Jan. 16 fire that destroyed a portion of Vistra Energy’s battery storage facility didn’t tarnish just one company. It was a black mark against the entire industry, and it could make it difficult to site new battery farms in California.

That may be unfair, given that the vast majority of energy storage systems in the U.S. have been operating safely. Yet dramatic photos of flames leaping from a building that housed 100,000 battery modules do not inspire confidence. Nor does the evacuation of 1,200 residents who have lingering doubts about the safety of air and water supplies, despite EPA assurances that there was no release of toxic materials. Nor does the fact that this was the fourth fire at the Moss Landing power station.

In Morro Bay, any remaining goodwill for Vistra’s project has gone up in a cloud of smoke.

Although the proposed new plant would use a different battery configuration and newer technology, it’s hard to trust the company that repeatedly assured the community there would be adequate safety measures in place to prevent accidents. It also shared a report that concluded that even if there were a fire, residents would not be exposed to any health risk.

Who can believe such statements now?
more: https://www.sanluisobispo.com/opinion/editorials/article298930395.html

BATTERIES BATTERIES BATTERIES EVERYWHERE
- Say those invested in Batteries! Imagine that.

5 replies

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Morro Bay residents were assured battery storage is safe. Moss Landing fire said otherwise (Original Post) Caribbeans Sunday OP

Well north of Morro Bay, but the people there are fighting another such facility planned for their area Attilatheblond Sunday #1

"contains tens of thousands of lithium batteries" - Every single one will die one day Caribbeans Sunday #2

I object to ALL energy storage scams that end up greenwashing fossil fuels, but that said, there are far more... NNadir Sunday #3

Good information in the video about different storage systems. They_Live Sunday #4

Salina's Valley lettuce is downwind of Moss Landing Bobstandard Sunday #5

Attilatheblond

(4,969 posts)

1. Well north of Morro Bay, but the people there are fighting another such facility planned for their area

Reply to Caribbeans (Original post)

Sun Jan 26, 2025, 04:06 PM

Sunday

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/17/g-s1-43268/fire-battery-storage-plant-california-moss-landing]

The Moss Landing Power Plant, located about 77 miles (about 124 kilometers) south of San Francisco, is owned by Texas-based company Vistra Energy and contains tens of thousands of lithium batteries. The batteries are important for storing electricity from such renewable energy sources as solar energy, but if they go up in flames the blazes can be extremely difficult to put out.

"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 he said he did not expect the fire to spread beyond the concrete building it was enclosed in.

The county Board of Supervisors planned an emergency meeting Friday morning to receive a briefing on the fire.

There were fires at the Vistra plant in 2021 and 2022 that were caused by a fire sprinkler system malfunction that resulted in some units overheating, according to The Mercury News.

Caribbeans

(1,074 posts)

2. "contains tens of thousands of lithium batteries" - Every single one will die one day

Reply to Attilatheblond (Reply #1)

Sun Jan 26, 2025, 04:13 PM

Sunday

and need replacement!

It's the disposable shaver method foisted on the people by those who stand to make money

The old 'Murikan way - you'd think people would have had enough of this horseshit already but NO!

NNadir

(35,006 posts)

3. I object to ALL energy storage scams that end up greenwashing fossil fuels, but that said, there are far more...

Reply to Caribbeans (Original post)

Sun Jan 26, 2025, 04:16 PM

Sunday

...large scale battery storage plants on this planet, vastly more, than there are the hydrogen facilities that fossil fuel greenwashers are trying to sell here, pretending that hydrogen all comes from the useless so called "renewable energy" industry, the popularity of which has done nothing to address extreme global heating, the consequences of which are now being observed worldwide.

It is the case that even when hydrogen is being monitored by trained chemical engineers, hydrogen the plants blow up.

Here for example, is a hydrogen explosion at a chemical plant for silicon chemistry that killed 4 people:

Hydrogen blast led to deaths at US silicones plant

The accident killed four people, which by the way, is four more people than radiation leaks at Fukushima killed. Our hydrogen fossil fuel greenwashing salespeople here love to carry on about Fukushima, but don't give a shit about the 7 million people killed by the air pollution generated the fossil fuel industry, which supplies practically all of the hydrogen on this planet.

The data is here: Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 (Lancet Volume 396, Issue 10258, 17–23 October 2020, Pages 1223-1249).

The top five risks for attributable deaths for females were high SBP (5·25 million [95% UI 4·49–6·00] deaths, or 20·3% [17·5–22·9] of all female deaths in 2019), dietary risks (3·48 million [2·78–4·37] deaths, or 13·5% [10·8–16·7] of all female deaths in 2019), high FPG (3·09 million [2·40–3·98] deaths, or 11·9% [9·4–15·3] of all female deaths in 2019), air pollution (2·92 million [2·53–3·33] deaths or 11·3% [10·0–12·6] of all female deaths in 2019), and high BMI (2·54 million [1·68–3·56] deaths or 9·8% [6·5–13·7] of all female deaths in 2019). For males, the top five risks differed slightly. In 2019, the leading Level 2 risk factor for attributable deaths globally in males was tobacco (smoked, second-hand, and chewing), which accounted for 6·56 million (95% UI 6·02–7·10) deaths (21·4% [20·5–22·3] of all male deaths in 2019), followed by high SBP, which accounted for 5·60 million (4·90–6·29) deaths (18·2% [16·2–20·1] of all male deaths in 2019). The third largest Level 2 risk factor for attributable deaths among males in 2019 was dietary risks (4·47 million [3·65–5·45] deaths, or 14·6% [12·0–17·6] of all male deaths in 2019) followed by air pollution (ambient particulate matter and ambient ozone pollution, accounting for 3·75 million [3·31–4·24] deaths (12·2% [11·0–13·4] of all male deaths in 2019), and then high FPG (3·14 million [2·70–4·34] deaths, or 11·1% [8·9–14·1] of all male deaths in 2019).

Fossil fuels kill people on a vast scale. Battery fires, even given the broad international use of battery devices, do not. It is the charging of batteries that is most dangerous. Even though consumer hydrogen would never be safe were it a real thing, rather than the object of slick videos produced by marketing teams, it is the manufacture of hydrogen that is most dangerous, because it is entirely, on any scale that matters, dependent of fossil fuels.

It would be less than honest to argue that fossil fuel sales people looking to greenwash fossil fuels actually give a rat's ass about the dangers of battery fires, which are, in fact, a real problem. Of course, the "batteries will make 'renewable energy' reliable," like the "hydrogen will make 'renewable energy' reliable," is all connected with claiming that so called "renewable energy" is a workable environmentally benign and desirable scheme, whereas the evidence - the main example of which is that the planet is on fire - clearly and unambiguously shows that so called "renewable energy" is useless for preventing environmental catastrophe, said catastrophe now being underway. As for reliability, nothing can make so called "renewable energy" reliable, clean or sustainable.

Have a nice evening.

They_Live

(3,318 posts)

4. Good information in the video about different storage systems.

Reply to Caribbeans (Original post)

Sun Jan 26, 2025, 04:31 PM

Sunday

but yeah, planned obsolescence and poor design. Cha-ching $$$

and oh: nobody knows the health effects of the toxic smoke. WTF?

Bobstandard

(1,782 posts)

5. Salina's Valley lettuce is downwind of Moss Landing

Reply to Caribbeans (Original post)

Sun Jan 26, 2025, 05:15 PM

Sunday

The toxic fumes of the Moss Landing battery fire blew for five days and nights over the Salinas Valley, where much of the country’s lettuce, strawberries and other foods are grown. But don’t worry, ‘authorities’ have claimed there is no danger.

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