Crews have begun work on step one of a protracted course of in cleansing up the wreckage of the Moss Touchdown battery storage plant after an enormous fireplace final month drew nationwide consideration and raised questions concerning the security of a brand new expertise wanted to proceed California’s growth of renewable power.
On Saturday and Sunday, staff started disconnecting a whole bunch of battery racks within the part of the plant that burned on Jan. 16.
“The point is to reduce the fire risk by disconnecting these batteries from each other,” stated Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fireplace Safety District of Monterey County.
“They made really good progress yesterday,” he added. “They aren’t done by any means. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.”
Vistra Power, the Texas firm that owns the power, one of many largest on this planet, stated it expects the method to take about two weeks.
Afterward, it plans to usher in demolition contractors within the weeks forward to tear down unstable partitions that have been broken within the fires so staff can disconnect the remainder of the batteries that didn’t burn within the fireplace.
The fireplace, which brought on the evacuation of 1,200 folks and the closure of Freeway 1 for 3 days, was the most important battery storage plant fireplace in america. It occurred within the Part 1 part of the Vistra plant, a former pure gas-burning energy plant that initially was constructed in 1950 by PG&E subsequent to Monterey Bay the place its large 500-foot-tall smokestacks, that are now not in use, might be seen for miles.
The reason for the hearth stays underneath investigation, Mendoza stated.
There have been about 100,000 lithium-ion batteries within the part of the power that burned, stated Eric Sandusky, the federal on-scene coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Safety Company. Of these, about 55% burned, he stated. As a result of the outdated PG&E concrete constructing the place the batteries have been stacked was closely broken within the fireplace, crews can solely get to about one-third of the burned batteries now, he stated.
When demolition crews start to take away the partitions and collapsed ceiling, together with twisted, burned beams and rebar, staff will have the ability to disconnect the remaining batteries, he added. However that demolition job will take time.
A few of the partitions that should come down are 75 toes excessive or extra, Sandusky famous. And the batteries stay unstable.
“It’s a very complicated process,” he stated. “We don’t want to drop anything or crush any batteries. It could take some time.”
Glenn Church, a Monterey County supervisor whose district consists of Moss Touchdown, stated it may take a month for the county to concern the demolition allow.
“Some of these walls have been compromised,” Church stated. “You just can’t bulldoze them and put them in a dump truck and haul it off. This is hazardous material. Millions of pounds of it. You have unburned batteries. If you stir them up, you risk another fire. It’s almost certainly true there are going to be more fires there. Hopefully if the other batteries are delinked it will be limited to the burned areas and they will be small fires.”
Mendoza agreed.
“At this point anything is a possibility,” he stated. “Could there be another big fire? Yes. But all the work that’s happening now is reducing that. Our hope is if there is one, it is small.”
There was a small flare-up final Tuesday. Smoke rose from a pile of rubble within the plant. Flames have been seen, but it surely burned itself out by the subsequent morning. Fireplace officers urged native residents to shut home windows. Mendoza stated adjustments within the climate, rain or shifting rubble could cause broken batteries to flare up, though temperatures on the web site have been steadily falling, he stated.
The most important query within the cleanup is but to be answered: What to do with the burned batteries, and the unburned ones within the broken a part of the plant — all of which include cobalt, manganese, nickel and different poisonous metals and chemical compounds.
Sandusky stated the burned batteries, and the unburned ones, shall be carted away. There are solely two landfills in California permitted for high-level hazardous waste: The Kettleman Hills facility in Kings County and the Buttonwillow Landfill in Kern County.
“The goal is to recycle as much as possible, if not all of the battery material,” Sandusky stated. “There are a few recycling facilities out of state. We aren’t 100% on disposal yet. But the goal is to recycle everything.”
Church stated he anticipated the demolition, cleanup and removing will take the remainder of the 12 months. Sandusky stated that definitely is a chance.
California has seen an enormous enhance within the development of battery storage vegetation lately, going from 17 in 2019 to 187 in the present day. Many extra are deliberate. The vegetation are wanted to retailer electrical energy generated by giant photo voltaic and wind farms to launch it again on the facility grid at evening when the solar isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing. California lawmakers have set a purpose of California producing 100% of its electrical energy from renewable and carbon-free sources by 2045 to fulfill the state’s local weather change and air air pollution targets.
However the Moss Touchdown fireplace, the fourth on the web site prior to now 4 years, has given the trade a black eye, and raised requires the vegetation to be constructed solely in rural areas away from properties, faculties and companies.
“In San Diego there was a fire last May at the Otay Mesa battery storage facility,” Church stated. “It’s nine months later and they are still cleaning it up. That gives you some idea of how big a job we have here.”
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