5 days after an enormous fireplace at one of many world’s largest battery storage crops in Moss Touchdown, Gov. Gavin Newsom has referred to as for an investigation into the blaze, which has jolted California’s renewable vitality trade.
“The governor believes there should be an investigation into this incident to determine cause and any steps that can be taken to make older facilities like Moss Landing safer,” mentioned Daniel Villasenor, a spokesman for Newsom. “As the governor has said before, as this technology has evolved, California has done extensive work to advance battery safety and reliability.”
Villasenor mentioned Newsom thinks Vistra, the Texas firm that owns the burned battery plant, and the California Public Utilities Fee, a state company, ought to every conduct investigations. The fee’s Security and Enforcement Division is scheduled to fulfill with plant officers Wednesday.
In the meantime native leaders on Tuesday requested the 2 firms that function on the website to close their battery storage services there down indefinitely till the reason for the hearth might be found and steps might be taken to scale back the chance of one other.
By a vote of 5-0, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors at an emergency assembly determined to ask Vistra, the corporate whose 750-megawatt facility burned, and PG&E, whose adjoining 182-megawatt facility didn’t, to stop operations till the causes of the hearth on the renewable vitality facility “have been determined and addressed.”
“This technology is ahead of government’s ability to regulate it and industry’s ability to control it,” mentioned Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church. “This process we are now in, which is learning as we go, just doesn’t work. It jeopardizes communities.”
The vote got here after a tense three-hour-long assembly at which dozens of residents of North Monterey County raised questions on well being impacts to their households from the dramatic fireplace, doable lingering air pollution in water and soil, how the services got county permits to open, and the way security shall be improved.
“We all had a metallic taste in our mouth, burning eyes, burning throat and yellow residue all over our things,” mentioned Michelle Clary, a resident of Royal Oaks, 4 miles east of the plant. “If you can’t put it out, that technology needs to stop. You’ve got to be able to put it out.”
The fireplace started at 3 p.m. Thursday. Inside a couple of hours, 100-foot tall flames have been capturing out of the concrete constructing the place Vistra operated 300 megawatts of battery storage as a part of its facility on a former PG&E pure fuel plant website that was constructed within the Nineteen Fifties. The blaze despatched a column of billowing poisonous smoke up into the sky. Police evacuated 1,200 folks till Friday night time, and closed Freeway 1 till Sunday.
Fireplace crews didn’t have interaction with the hearth however relatively waited for it to burn out by itself. Lithium battery fires are notoriously tough to extinguish. They burn at excessive temperatures and may emit poisonous gases that may trigger respiratory issues, pores and skin burns and eye irritation.
Officers from the U.S. Environmental Safety Company arrange air displays Thursday night time. On the assembly Tuesday, Rick Encarnacion, director of environmental well being for Monterey County, mentioned no displays detected ranges of particulate matter — or soot — or hydrogen fluoride, a poisonous fuel that may come from lithium battery fires, above state well being tips.
Vistra officers echoed that assertion.
“We are continuing to monitor the site and can confirm there is no active flame,” mentioned Peter Ziegler, vice chairman of Vistra. “A limited amount of smoldering is continuing. Air monitoring conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and independent third party air quality experts continues to demonstrate the site and surrounding area is safe and does not pose a risk for the public.”
The fireplace was the fourth on the Moss Touchdown location since 2019. Two occurred on the Vistra website in 2021 and 2022. Investigations confirmed that they have been brought on by a malfunction in a hearth sprinkler system, which launched water and induced a number of of the LG battery items to overheat. The opposite occurred on the adjoining PG&E website in 2022, when an improperly put in vent defend on one of many 256 Tesla items there allowed rainwater to get in and brief out the batteries.
This fireplace was a lot bigger, nevertheless. Vistra and fireplace officers say it destroyed practically all the 300-megawatt portion of the positioning. A megawatt is sufficient electrical energy to energy 750 houses.
Neither Vistra or PG&E mentioned Tuesday how lengthy the 2 services would stay shut down.
Vistra’s Ziegler mentioned firm officers haven’t but been capable of start their inspection as a result of a number of the batteries are nonetheless smoldering.
There was some confusion Tuesday about whether or not Vistra and PG&E had accomplished emergency response plans as required beneath a legislation signed by Newsom in 2023. State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, mentioned it didn’t seem PG&E had submitted a plan to Monterey County, because the legislation, SB 38, which he wrote, required.
Late Tuesday, PG&E spokeswoman Lynsey Paolo mentioned the corporate had submitted an emergency response plan in July to the North County Fireplace Safety District of Monterey County. Requested to make a duplicate public, she mentioned the corporate wouldn’t try this as a result of the plan contained proprietary data.
Vistra submitted an emergency response plant to the county in September 2023, 4 months earlier than the legislation took impact. County officers mentioned Tuesday that plan didn’t include a “worst case scenario” of an enormous fireplace, however relatively solely plans for coping with a small fireplace.
“The impacts of this fire have been profound — from the financial hardships faced by small businesses affected by the highway closure to the stress and disruption caused from the evacuation,” Laird mentioned. “These challenges underscore the importance of not only addressing the immediate aftermath but also implementing long-term solutions to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
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