The Moss Landing battery storage fire in California has added kindling to the fears that energy storage projects — at least those using lithium-ion batteries — will lead to increased fire risks.
This was one of the central arguments during debate last week over the Rancho Viejo solar project near Santa Fe. The company behind the Rancho Viejo project has asked for a conditional use permit from Santa Fe County. The Santa Fe County Planning Commission last week voted 6-1 in favor of the project.
Fires like the one at Moss Landing in January are extremely rare. In the last decade, there have been about 20 fires at operating energy storage facilities in the United States, even as the number of battery storage facilities have increased exponentially.
Opponents say the risks are still far too great to have these facilities built close to residential areas.
During the Santa Fe County Planning Commission last week, Ashley Schannauer, a retired lawyer who spent 17 years working for New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, highlighted some of the past fires at battery storage facilities, including Moss Landing.
These battery storage projects tend to use lithium-ion batteries.
“There are battery alternatives out there,” Schannauer said during the Rancho Viejo hearing. “There’s long-duration battery storage that maybe is a bit early to be deployed…There’s also different types of short-duration batteries.”
Right now, most energy storage projects are deploying four-hour batteries, meaning they can provide a certain amount of electricity to the grid for four hours. These are what Schannauer referred to as short-duration batteries.
He specifically highlighted the lithium-iron phosphate battery, which he said the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) has utilized. He said PNM is planning to use lithium-iron phosphate batteries when it builds the Sunbelt Project in San Juan County.
“It’s a more stable chemistry and less prone to fires,” Schannauer said.
The amount of energy they can store is one of the key components that has made lithium-ion batteries so popular, but is also a primary reason why they can catch fire.
Batteries that have high-density energy storage can experience a cascade of chemical reactions causing a fire. This is known as thermal runaway.
Lithium iron phosphate is a type of lithium-ion battery, however it uses phosphate for the cathode material rather than cobalt oxide, manganese oxide or nickel oxide. While they are considered safer than other lithium-ion batteries, they tend to have lower-energy density, which means they can’t store as much electricity.
Fire safety isn’t the only reason why there’s been increased interest in alternative types of batteries.
Supply chain challenges placed strains on lithium and cobalt supplies, which reignited interest in a type of battery known as sodium-ion.
The scientific peer-reviewed journal Energies devoted a special issue published Jan. 31 to sodium-ion battery technology.
“As concerns regarding the sustainability and cost of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) continue to grow, it is important to shift our research and development focus towards cheaper and safer alternatives for energy storage applications,” Mengya Li, the guest editor, wrote in the special issue information.
The research published on Jan. 31 looked into how different cathode materials impact sodium-ion battery performance.
This research was led by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, along with other partners.
“Further assessment is required, but these initial observations indicate that less thermal management may be required for [sodium-ion] batteries compared to [lithium-ion] batteries,” the authors wrote in the discussion section of their study.
That could mean sodium ion batteries might be a safer alternative.
This story first published on New Mexico Political Report.
