A huge fire has burned out at the Moss Landing battery storage plant on the northwest coast of California. This location is far, far away from the wildfires burning in the vicinity of Los Angeles. It therefore seems likely that a technical problem at the plant caused the Moss Landing battery fire. For the rest, there are many questions begging answers.
What We Know About the Moss Landing Storage Project
The Moss Landing Power Plant is a natural gas generation facility, producing 1,020 megawatts from its remaining unit. A local electricity company began constructing a 300 MW / 1,200 MWh energy storage system there, in June 2018.
This innovative plan used a decommissioned turbine hall, and its links to the local 500 kV distribution grid. The unit began delivering electricity by the end of 2020, and was then the largest such facility in the world.
Phase 1 battery storage comprises “JH4 cells in TR1300 racks in two levels in the old turbine hall,” according to Wikipedia. Phase 2 subsequently added a further 100 MW / 400 MWh capacity.
Construction began with Phase 3 in 2023, adding a further 50 MW / 1,400 MWh capacity. This was completed in August 2023, making the total 750 MW / 3,000 MWh, the largest such facility in the world.
What We Know About Moss Landing Battery Fire
Wikipedia reports an over-temperature event in Phase 1 in September 2021, following a leak in a coolant hose. Then, in February 2022, there was a ‘sprinkler event’ taking Phase 2 offline.
The Moss Landing battery fire broke out in Phase 1 on January 16, 2025, when ‘recently installed battery systems’ ignited. Local authorities evacuated over 2,000 residents, as a safety measure.
By the evening of January 17, 2025, the fire had burned itself out to a point where county officials allowed residents to return to their homes. The cause of the Phase 1 fire was unknown at the time that we wrote this post.
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