Almost a month after the fire at the Moss Landing energy storage facility in California, US authorities are considering how to move forward. A BESS safety bill has already been tabled.
The Moss Landing 300 battery fire grew into the largest battery accident on record and destroyed most of the large array of batteries at Moss Landing, according to the authorities.
Monterey County supervisors declared a state of emergency and told Vistra, which owns the site, not to restart the facility. In an update on 5 February from Monterey County, North County Fire Protection District said the situation is stable. “Public safety officials are monitoring the potential for flare-ups and additional fires at the Vistra site due to the atmospheric river interacting with the remaining lithium-ion batteries and debris hotspots,” it said. Fire personnel remain on site and are actively monitoring the situation.
Fire safety and the location of energy storage sites away from homes and schools is already being debated by legislators.
Democrat California State Assembly member Dawn Addis, who represents the district Moss Landing is in, put forward Assembly Bill 303 (Battery Energy Safety & Accountability Act) on 23 January.
It would prohibit the authorisation of a development project that includes a BESS capable of storing 200MWh or more energy if the development is within 3,200 feet of a sensitive receptor or is located on an environmentally sensitive site.
It would also remove the 2022 reform that made it faster to get a state permit for these facilities. That reform was put into place specifically under climate change goals for the state of California.
The bill was reportedly criticised by the California branch of the American Clean Power Association as too broad.
Legislators in both Orange County and Morro Bay have separately imposed a 45-day moratorium on either current projects or any new ones going ahead.
Soil screening by San Jose State University has found heavy metals in the nearby Elkhorn Slough Reserve. But the county is yet to receive the data and will respond to it in due course, it said. Monterey County is still conducting its own tests.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, according to Monterey County. Vistra is establishing a claims programme to compensate for business disruptions.
