Senior professionals, why is energy storage said to be a 'pitfall'?

【Answer 1】 1. Accident Overview ・ Date: July 30, 2021 ・ Location: Moira Shire, Victoria, Australia — Tesla Megapack Energy Storage Project (one of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery energy storage projects) ・ Scale: 300 MW / 450 MWh, using Tesla Megapack containerized energy storage systems ・ Consequences: One container was completely destroyed by fire; an adjacent container was also affected. The fire raged for four days before being largely brought under control. No casualties occurred. 2. Chronology of the Incident ・ A single Megapack container suddenly caught fire, and the blaze spread rapidly. ・ Fire departments employed conventional firefighting methods (water sprinklers), which proved ineffective—and may even have exacerbated thermal runaway. ・ The fire generated large volumes of toxic, dense smoke, forcing the evacuation of nearby residents and prompting the temporary closure of a highway. (People’s Daily) ・ Due to continuous energy and gas release from the batteries, repeated re-ignitions occurred; ultimately, a “controlled burn” strategy was adopted. 3. Direct Causes and Underlying Issues ・ System design flaws: Insufficient spacing between back-to-back installed containers and lack of effective fire separation. ・ Limitations of firefighting technology: Traditional water-based suppression is ineffective against lithium-ion battery thermal runaway and may pose electric shock hazards. ・ Propagation of thermal runaway: Inadequate thermal isolation between battery modules enabled rapid spread of thermal runaway. ・ Inadequate monitoring: Early anomalies in battery behavior went undetected, missing the optimal window for intervention. 4. Key Lessons Learned ・ Rational layout design: Energy storage containers must maintain adequate spacing (at least 8 meters) and be equipped with firewalls or firebreaks. ・ Adoption of specialized fire suppression: Promote inert-gas systems (e.g., nitrogen, fluoroketone) and avoid water-based suppression. ・ Enhanced thermal management: Optimize ventilation systems within battery enclosures and install high-efficiency thermal barrier materials. ・ Establishment of early-warning systems: Deploy advanced monitoring equipment such as distributed fiber-optic temperature sensors and combustible gas detectors. III. International Case Study 2: Repeated Fires at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, California, USA (2021–2025) 1. Accident Overview ・ Dates: September 2021, February 2022, October 2023, January 2025 (four separate fires) ・ Location: Moss Landing, California — operated by Vistra Energy, hosting the world’s largest lithium-ion battery energy storage project ・ Scale: Total capacity reaching 3.6 GWh, utilizing LG Chem NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) lithium-ion batteries ・ Consequences: Approximately **15%** of battery modules were damaged cumulatively; multiple shutdowns occurred, resulting in massive economic losses. 2. Chronology and Causes of Fires Fire # Date Direct Cause Consequence First Sep. 4, 2021 Fault detection system misidentified air-conditioning overheating and triggered water spray, causing battery short-circuit and thermal runaway 7% of battery modules damaged Second Feb. 2022 Melting of battery racks; specific cause undisclosed—suspected thermal management system failure 10 battery racks destroyed Third Oct. 2023 Internal thermal runaway in batteries; triggering mechanism unknown Severe localized damage Fourth Jan. 2025 Re-ignition due to thermal runaway, possibly linked to residual energy release from damaged batteries Further expansion of losses

Safety assessment and access standards for cascade utilization of retired lithium-ion batteries in energy storage stations

【Answer 2】 In January 2025, one of the world’s largest energy storage stations—the 300 MW / 1,200 MWh Moss Landing project in California, USA—caught fire, resulting in 70% facility destruction and the emergency evacuation of 2,000 people. Meanwhile, in China, 600,000 tonnes of retired power batteries are flooding into the channel for cascade (second-life) utilization in energy storage stations. When old batteries are installed into new stations, how should safety assessments be conducted? Are current access standards sufficient? This question can no longer be postponed. 1 A Single Fire Exposed Global Safety Anxiety Over Energy Storage On January 16, 2025, at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Station in California, USA— one of the world’s largest energy storage stations, with an installed capacity of 300 MW / 1,200 MWh powered by LG Energy Solution’s NMC lithium-ion batteries—a battery module experienced thermal runaway in the early hours. Within minutes, flames engulfed the entire battery compartment. Fire departments deployed substantial resources, yet the fire repeatedly re-ignited and burned for several days. Approximately 2,000 nearby residents were urgently evacuated, and 70% of the facility was ultimately destroyed. This was not an isolated incident. On June 16, 2025, in Pohang City, South Korea, 8,392 lithium-ion battery modules at an energy storage station were reduced to ashes in raging flames. In the same month, a 300 MW / 600 MWh energy storage project under construction in Tilbury, UK, also suffered a fire. Earlier, in May 2024, the Gateway Energy Storage Station in California burned for nearly two weeks; 40 firefighters and five fire engines proved unable to extinguish this ‘battery volcano.’ According to statistics published in the journal *Energy Storage Science and Technology*, between November 2017 and September 2024, there were 90 fire or explosion incidents involving lithium-ion batteries at electrochemical energy storage stations worldwide. Among them, incidents caused by NMC batteries were 2.5 times more frequent than those caused by lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries; 80% of incidents occurred during normal station operation; and human factors accounted for as much as 43.3% of all incidents. These figures are cold and stark. Yet what is even more alarming is that—these burnt and exploded batteries were all brand-new. If new batteries behave this way, what about retired, used ones? 2 600,000 Tonnes: A ‘Urban Mine’ or a ‘Ticking Bomb’? China’s annual new-energy vehicle production exceeded 10 million units in 2024. According to data released by the Ministry of Public Security, as of end-June 2025, the national stock of new-energy vehicles reached 36.89 million units. Based on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s 2016 warranty standard—‘8 years or 120,000 km’—the first large-scale batch of new-energy vehicle traction batteries is now entering its retirement phase en masse. According to statistics from the China Society of Automotive Engineers, China’s annual volume of retired power batteries surged over 140% year-on-year in 2023, exceeding 580,000 tonnes. The China Electronic Energy Conservation Technology Association forecasts that the 2025 retirement volume will reach 820,000 tonnes, surpassing 4 million tonnes annually starting in 2028, and hitting 6 million tonnes nationwide by 2030. What does 6 million tonnes mean? Assuming an average energy density of 100 Wh/kg, cascade utilization could support the construction of at least 10,000 medium-sized energy storage stations. Sounds promising? Reality is far more complex than the numbers suggest. Retired power batteries are not ‘uniform, standardized products.’ They originate from different automakers, different battery manufacturers, different vehicle models, different service lifespans, and different charge/discharge usage histories.

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