Moss Landing battery fire hit plant with older, vulnerable technology, expert says

When it opened back in 2020, Vistra Corp.’s Moss Landing battery-powered storage plant was billed as a state-of-the-art component of California’s clean energy future.

Today, that facility – once considered the world’s largest -- is in ruins from a fire last month that burned for two days, destroying 80% of its batteries.

Vistra says it cannot be certain the extent of the damage, however, because its crews have yet to enter the building where the fire occurred. Vistra has two neighboring battery facilities on the Moss Landing site that were not damaged.

The disaster hit just as the state had hopes of quadrupling battery storage beyond the nearly 200 plants already built. The idea behind them is simple: to store the solar energy generated during the day until needed when the sun goes down.

Experts say that in the five years since the Vistra plant opened, energy storage technology has rapidly evolved to avoid such a catastrophe. But the massive fire has local officials challenging the entire concept.

“I mean, nobody in that industry really knows what's happening,” said Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, whose district includes the Moss Landing plant. “Nobody in government really knows what to do -- and that is the problem right there.”

Church says he was already dubious of the technology after a fire hit PG&E’s separate system at the Moss Landing plant site back in 2022. He went to officials with Texas-based Vistra Corp. to ask about the larger facility housed inside the Moss Landing natural gas plant.

Source: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/battery-facility-industry-storage-discussions/3784945/