Plant at Moss Landing on fire!….again.

I was about to say, i bet they used a car centric design with completely average safety..
At least they are segmented into banks, that at least was smart and seems to have worked ( the plant is still online ), according to that article?
 
That's insane... we need non flammable batteries soon otherwise... this kind of PR will haunt the idea of battery power stations for a while.

Maybe time to start thinking about Sodium Ion or something else that has a huge safety margin.
I think you know that any newer unusual tech related to the grid is gonna get pushback simply because its new. I had mentioned that it would be cool if people would be into flywheel energy storage. But once you start looking at it on a large scale, you get people freaking out about how dangerous it could be if the flywheel explodes when spinning at high speeds. There's just no winning with people sometimes.
 
Is it confirmed that these were all Tesla Megapacks ?,..
There have been several utility fires where LG storage packs were used, and even now there is still a ongoing Emergency Recall for all LG domestic solar storage packs because of a known fire risk.
Ironicly, the earliest utility storage batteries used A123 LFP technology, but i believe even some of those burned !
 
I had mentioned that it would be cool if people would be into flywheel energy storage. But once you start looking at it on a large scale, you get people freaking out about how dangerous it could be if the flywheel explodes when spinning at high speeds.
you do know that flywheel systems have been used for grid storage for over ten yrs …
But, i suspect the costs are more than batteries, and maintenance may be an issue.
 
I was about to say, i bet they used a car centric design with completely average safety..
At least they are segmented into banks, that at least was smart and seems to have worked ( the plant is still online ), according to that article?
Not really. It’s just the technology evolved quickly, including safer options. What was state of the art one year become old two years later, with lessons learned each time this stuff happens. If you made a decision now, you’d take into consideration all available technologies, and how they stack up against the costs and liabilities. If you went for something less safe, the lawyers will point that out when the lawsuits happen.
 
Not really. It’s just the technology evolved quickly, including safer options. What was state of the art one year become old two years later, with lessons learned each time this stuff happens. If you made a decision now, you’d take into consideration all available technologies, and how they stack up against the costs and liabilities. If you went for something less safe, the lawyers will point that out when the lawsuits happen.

Some truth to that.
4 years ago the only economical cell you could use was LFP.
 
Mmm...knowing what happens in turbofan blade failures, I'm...disconcerted...by the picture in my head of an energy-storage flywheel failure. :(
 
Although if you think the failure modes for lithium ion batteries are bad . . . .
Hey @neptronix I found one of them! Told you, just mention something different and new and someone will be along shortly to tell you how bad it could be
 
Or maybe they're here to tell you about how bad the old thing is!

Hey nonetheless, safer batteries is good and i want to see it. With today's chemistries, i don't feel confident packing the 3kwhrs i want into a frame, i ride with 1-1.2kwhrs of the highest quality pack i can buy and cross my fingers.

One day we will look back at 'early lithium' and be surprised in hindsight what we were willing to put up with to get to the electric future sooner.

Back to the topic, it's really good they segmented these batteries at least. It sounds like it was only a disaster because of how the news spun it.

Losing 1/256th of a battery and continuing to operate is actually impressive and i'm glad i learned that here, since mainstream news isn't really here to inform.
 
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Apologies for the OT continuation (feel free to move it if desired):

So of course I was curious and found:
This one just came unmoored and then hit the wall (and then came apart); I"m not sure if it it would have been worse if it had actually failed similarly to a turbofan failure (probably more widespread damage in the building, more of it on-circumference?) Even so, it apparently damaged the building so badly it couldn't be used anymore. The latter two images are from above, looking down on the severely damaged roof of the building.
1740286364812.png 1740286404028.png 1740286428393.png


A news video (link "damaged" by google?): https://www.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKT9_8-RUTvI



A very cursory search for falure modes and containment appears to indicate it's preferred to isntall them underground so taht the ground itself provides a final containment should all else fail. (to prevent things like pieces of it exiting the entire building and intersecting with other buildings, people, etc for however far the pieces are flung).

The only other failure I found in my few seconds of looking was this one
that was contained in that way.
1740286914963.png

I did see quite a few factory type flywheel explosions, but didn't include them here as I was only intending to remark on energy storage specific failures.
 
Even so, it apparently damaged the building so badly it couldn't be used anymore.
Yep. With any energy storage system, uncontrolled release of that energy is the risk. With flywheels, all that energy is released in tenths of a second. At least batteries burn for a few hours, thus slowing the release of that energy.
 
you do know that flywheel systems have been used for grid storage for over ten yrs …
Not exactly flywheels, but hydro generators can run synched to the grid, spinning but delivering no power, but because they are synched, they provide frequency control. They can still sell their capacity into the market, since they're considered spinning reserves, and if they are dispatched to generate, they make money on the energy too.
 
Not exactly flywheels, but hydro generators can run synched to the grid, spinning but delivering no power, but because they are synched, they provide frequency control.
Yes, but certainly not a storage function, and not limited to Hydro ,..all the big steam driven generators also can do this.
It is one part of the “FCAS”,..Frequency Control and Auxilliary services in a grid system.
 
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