Grid scale battery fires loom large
By
David Wojick
|
October 1st, 2024
America faces a growing threat from grid scale lithium battery fires. Construction of huge battery arrays with no concern for potentially catastrophic fires is out of control. There are no established standards to follow and local permitting authorities seem oblivious to this very real danger.
What follows is a brief introduction to the issue. To begin with look at this photo of an existing grid battery array called Desert Sunlight:
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desert_Sunlight_(52290008686).jpg#fileThe batteries are teamed with a big solar facility because until recently that was the only way to get the battery subsidies. Each lithium battery unit is the size of a tractor trailer or big shipping container and there are well over a hundred of them, with a rated storage capacity of 230 MW. This is a medium sized storage facility.
https://www.cfact.org/2024/10/01/grid-scale-battery-fires-loom-large/
