Tesla Inc (TSLA)

[boston745]

Battery Storage Fire in California Sparks Widespread Safety Concerns

nearly two-week-long fire at a battery energy storage facility in California highlighted the risks associated with emerging battery storage technologies that are central to the clean energy transition.

Fire crews took 24 hours to “get a handle on” the flare that erupted May 15 at the 250-megawatt Gateway Energy Storage Facility in Otay Mesa near San Diego, reports Fox 5 News. Two days later it reignited—and then smouldered for more than a week.

The facility’s lithium-ion batteries are believed to be the source of the fire. They are prone to thermal runaway, a chain reaction that results in the battery producing heat more rapidly than it can dissipate. Internal battery temperatures can spike to around 400°C (752°F) in milliseconds, and the intense heat driving the fires make them extremely difficult to put out.

Fires like the one at Gateway have made people wary of battery energy storage facilities. Polling by Heatmap shows them to be the least popular form of carbon-free power. While fires at large energy storage facilities may be rare, Heatmap says respondents may have lumped them together with the relatively more common fires seen in lithium-ion-powered devices like scooters and e-bikes.

Notice the author of the article doesnt bring up common fires from Electric cars in their examples of why people are weary of lithium storage facilities. I guarantee if there were as many EV cars as there are electric scooters there would be alot more fire incidents.
Another thing to note is they say lithium batteries are prone to thermal runaway but they dont explain why. I show two such ways EMF causes Thermal Runaway in section 2 of this post. That means during and around solar/geomagnetic storms, these events are more likely to occur. Especially around the equinoxes when these incidents seem most prominent (March-April & Sept-Oct).

But experts say battery energy storage will be crucial to the clean energy transition, especially to harness intermittent sources like wind and solar. California has been pushing the deployment of storage batteries for its transition to clean energy and is already a world leader in battery storage capacity.

If we switched to Geothermal, 24/7 base load power that has the lowest carbon footprint outside of nuclear, then batteries arent needed except for maybe load balancing. Oil industry is making it possible to put geothermal anywhere. Geothermal works even when the sun doesnt shine and there is no wind. Does not depend on rain collection either. It just hasnt been cost effective to date to become more widespread.

https://www.theenergymix.com/battery-storage-fire-in-california-sparks-widespread-safety-concerns/

========================================

Section 2 - How does EMF cause lithium batteries to experience thermal runaway and thus spontaneously combust? One of two main ways:

#1 - Overcharge/Discharge

With various impressed external magnetic field intensities an effect was noticed on the charge and discharge curves as well as the charge and mass concentrations within the batteries. With the two-dimensional model starting from 0mT and going to 1mT had the effect of discharging the battery faster and charging the battery faster. With the two-dimensional model starting from 1mT and going to -1mT had the effect of charging the battery faster. In either case an effect on the various characteristics of the battery were studied. With the experiments conducted on the two types of batteries the effect was more profound than subtle. Discharge times were twice as fast and charge times were equally
affected. With the smaller batteries they all generally charged faster under the presence of a magnetic field due to more uniform penetration. In the presence of the field they also discharged faster. The larger batteries would not see the same uniform penetration because only a small area of the battery sees the center of the coil it is placed on

In this dissertation, they found that external magnetic fields significantly increased charge and discharge rates in individual lithium battery cells; like shown in the following image. They also found that smaller batteries were impacted to a greater degree than larger ones. This is likely a reason Tesla is switching to larger battery cells in addition to employing magnetic attenuating honeycomb sandwich battery pack.

Thermal Runaway of Lithium-Ion Batteries Triggered by Electromagnetic Interference
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9025761

https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0378775320302172-fx1_lrg.jpg

#2 - Stimulation of Dendrite Growth

Thermoelectric current causes asymmetric growth pattern of dendrites.

thermoelectromagnetic convection occurs in the vicinity of the solid-liquid interface, and vortices are generated between dendritic arms. It is shown that the thermoelectromagnetic convection has a major influence on dendritic morphology.

Quote Sources:

#1:https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/1743

#2:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001793101930225X