Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Imagine if people were crazy enough to install these difficult to extinguish battery incendiary devices in their homes or automobiles, or near populated areas. Imagine what such foolishness could do to insurance premiums, once companies catch on to the risk of batteries acting as potent initiators and accelerants in house fires, or realise they might have to unexpectedly cover the cleanup cost of adjacent homes and gardens contaminated with poisonous residues from the battery smoke.
Blaze at Tesla Big Battery extinguished after three days
By Lucy Battersby and Cassandra Morgan
Updated August 2, 2021 — 7.40pmFire crews have extinguished a blaze at Victoria’s new Tesla Big Battery, the largest lithium-ion battery in the country, after taking more than three days to bring it under control.
One of the Tesla megapack batteries at the site in Moorabool, near Geelong, caught fire during testing shortly after 10am on Friday.
The Victorian Big Battery, with a capacity of 300 megawatts and 450 megawatt-hours, is three times bigger than the initial size of billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla big battery built in South Australia in 2017.
…
The authority said that, because of the nature of the fire – a 13-tonne battery – firefighters couldn’t put water on it or employ ordinary suppression methods. Instead, they had to let it “burn out” and wait for the container to cool down enough to open its doors.
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Authorities had warned of toxic smoke billowing from the site on Friday. Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority has been monitoring air quality at the site over the weekend, and determined it was “good” by Monday afternoon.
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Read more: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/blaze-at-tesla-big-battery-extinguished-after-three-day-battle-for-control-20210802-p58f6x.html
At the very least in my opinion these batteries should be sited well away from densely populated areas, and the practice of storing large batteries near or inside homes should cease. As political vanity causes grid scale battery packs to grow in size, the potential for long term harm to anyone unlucky enough to breath the smoke or eat produce grown in battery smoke fallout contaminated soil will also rise.
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Let’s see: 450 megawatt hours. Average US household consumes 850+ kwh per month = 1.2 kwh consumed per hour. 450 megawatt hours will back up 375K households for 1 hour.
The Victoria 600 MWh battery was expected to cost $300M so I guess the 450 MWh would be at least $225M.
$225M/375K households = $600 per household for 1 hour backup.
Seems like a lot to me…
There is no other way to make unreliables work. In fact, without fossil fuels as backup (and spinning to avoid starting times), even the batteries are useless unless they can cover an entire period with no wind or solar.
In fact, when you think about it, both wind and solar must produce enough to power the whole state when the other is not working, AND the power to recharge these batteries. You probably need at least 4x the existing capacity, and not just at peak output, to make unreliables work at all.
Zig Zag – yet so many seem incapable of understanding such a basic concept.
Keeping you informed….Doubters in ZPE (and Andrea Rossi) please ignore…
2021-08-03 04:44 Martyn Aubrey
Dear Dr Rossi,
You replied “1” to Chris’s question asking if the Ecat SKL has “1) More reliability with inductive loads?”
Does this mean that the Ecat SKL is now capable of powering an electric vehicle?
Thank you if you can answer.
Kind regards
Martyn Aubrey
2021-08-03 10:26 Andrea Rossi
Martyn Aubrey:
On its way [maybe 2022]
Warm Regards,
A.R. Ref: http://www.rossilivecat.com/
see also http://www.researchgate.net/publication/330601653_E-Cat_SK_and_long_range_particle_interactions
Most everyone I know has a laptop and a cellphone, both with a Lithium Ion battery, and is either on the couch or in/near bed all night with them. I am surprised there isn’t more fires happening from these devices. Even a cell phone that catches fire has the capacity to burn down the entire condo/house. I have dozens of li-on batteries in tools and gadgets/computers and so far, touch wood.
But is a reminder to turn everything off and charge and store them in a safe place. Note to self…don’t put the new lithium batteries in the RV closet, although LiFePO4 deep cycle Lithium iron phosphate batteries don’t represent nearly the same risk as Li-On. However many of these less expensive affordable ones are made in China, which should be my first clue as to longevity.
I just read about a battery that uses iron instead of lithium. They claim it will be out in 2023, but it is only experimental at the moment. It rusts iron particles and then removes oxygen to restore the rusted iron back to its original form. How that works, I do not know. Is this real, or another boondoggle?
And that was just a ‘ test ‘ of one battery .
Obviously a fail .
Will they test the rest or change the test .
Very testing indeed .
Almost as bad a 45 day fire in a brown coal mine in the same state in 2014. LOL
I’m not sure I believe this story. I’ve checked the BBC’s website for news of this so-called battery fire and there’s nothing.
Fact check: FALSE
(I don’t really need to point out that this is sarcasm, do I?)
How can we dance
When our turbines aren’t turning
How do we sleep
While our batteries are burning
Apologies to Midnight Oil.
Can we say Chernobyl like?
Could a hacker could subvert the battery charging software that controls the rate of charge and monitors temperature? Now imagine that being sent as an over the air update.
When are we going to get a class action law suite against Apple, Tesla, etc., initiated by Congolese children to compensate for their premature death at the age of 12 suffering from myocardiopathy, where their hearts expand due to inhalation and contact with Cobalt.
I am an expert in plastics, plastics manufacturing and fire safety. Lithium Ion batteries rely on an extremely thin plastic film to separate the anodic fluid and cathodic fluid from coming into contact with each other. If they come into contact the result is an extremely exothermic reaction, explosion and subsequent fire. It is impossible to make a film that is 100% defect free from contamination and gels and unmelts. Failures are inevitable.
“Imagine if people were crazy enough to install these difficult to extinguish battery incendiary devices in their homes or automobiles, or near populated areas.”
You must dispose of your mobile phone, kids electric toys, electric screw drivers, electric drills, electric tooth brushes, and of course laptops. Or of course you can go to the bottom of the garden with your portables for safety.
Or are you having a larf?
Wrong analogy. The real analogy is a 1 gallon gas can in your garage vs an Exxon Mobile/Shell/BP Gasoline tank farm for filling semi-tractor trailers in your garage.
In this case, size does matter.
Meanwhile they export vast tonnages of iron…..
Battery Technology | Form Energy
Asking again, WHO is looking into the release of all of this Lithium into the environment? This could easily be worse than the Lead additive to gasoline debacle.
Well, extra environmental lithium might calm people down….
does this imply that the “Powerwall” type product is problematic for personal home garages & basements?
Yes
Are the eco-nazis seeing this?
“Authorities had warned of toxic smoke billowing from the site”