A fireplace broke out on the Moss Touchdown Vitality Storage Facility in Central California Thursday. The battery energy plant is the biggest on the earth in accordance with the corporate, Vistra, that owns it.
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Workplace issued evacuation orders for close by residents and closed elements of Freeway 1 in response. County Well being officers have requested different residents to shelter indoors with home windows and doorways closed and to change off air flow programs.
The corporate will examine the reason for the hearth as soon as it’s out, Vistra spokesperson Jenny Lyon advised The Mercury Information. Vistra didn’t instantly reply to an e mail from The Verge. It accomplished an growth of the power in 2023, including greater than 110,000 battery modules wanted to retailer renewable power. Vitality storage services like this one are important for energy grids to have the ability to hold sufficient extra photo voltaic and wind power so it’s out there when the solar goes down and winds wane.
This isn’t the primary battery fireplace within the space. A close-by Pacific Fuel & Electrical battery plant stocked with Tesla batteries caught fireplace again in 2022. The yr prior, Vistra needed to briefly shut down its battery plant at Moss Touchdown after a malfunctioning smoke detector and heat-suppression system sprayed water on its batteries, Canary Media reported.
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