Escondido Lithium Battery Fire Continues to Burn as County Considers Moratorium

How much was lost during the Evacuation? The costs of "Evacuations" aren't included in the rosy predictions of how much actual energy these BESS installations "save".

Escondido Lithium Battery Fire Continues to Burn as County Considers Moratorium

TimesofSanDiego.com | Brooke Binkowski | Sep 7, 2024

Local groups are reacting to Thursday’s dramatic lithium battery fire in Escondido that prompted in school closures and evacuation orders — even as the fire continues to burn.

The fire, which began at the SDG&E facility Thursday afternoon, is being allowed to burn out by itself — per industry standard, said the Escondido Fire Department.

Just one of the site’s 24 cells caught fire.

“Despite the current fire being in an industrial area, hundreds of businesses were evacuated and many more were told to shelter-in-place. Schools located downwind were closed today as well.”

Since 2021, there have been 45 fires at similar BESS facilities, including one at the Otay Mesa battery storage center earlier this year and one in Valley Center last year...more
https://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2024/09/06/lithium-battery-fire-continues-to-burn-as-county-considers-moratorium/




And many people haven't heard of even one, thanks to the silence on the topic. Posts about battery fires on most Reddit Subs are taken down soon after posting.

Worldwide Wiki Database of BESS battery fires

The development of battery energy storage systems over the past 10 years has been characterised by the frequency of spontaneous fires. In Korea there have been 30 BESS fires since 2017, so many that the Korean authorities imposed a moratorium on building BESS until the causes were investigated. It was found that some BESS fires occurred in coastal areas with higher humidity, which may be a point to raise regarding the siting at Coldharbour.

The Fordham-Allison-Melville paper describes many incidences of recent battery fires, and examples are described below. The paper explains how fires can propagate, often from deep inside the system. Battery fires can seemingly be brought under control, but then flare up again the following day. Their paper identifies well-established hazards of large-scale Lithium-ion Battery energy Storage Systems and reviews authoritative accounts and analyses of incidents that have arisen from them...more
https://cagonline.co.uk/bess-fires