Tesla big battery blaze under control as probe launched
A fire that broke out at the Victorian Big Battery at Moorabool has been brought under control after four days.
A fire at one of Tesla’s biggest ever battery projects in Victoria has been brought under control four days after it was set alight during testing.
The giant facility stacked with batteries supplied by Elon Musk’s Tesla - dubbed Victoria’s Big Battery - caught ablaze on Friday with 150 firefighters and 30 trucks attending the Moorabool site near Geelong.
Firefighters found a 13-tonne lithium ion battery in a shipping container which set off a warning to local communities about toxic smoke fumes. The fire spread from an initial Tesla battery pack to a second unit on Friday with the blaze finally declared under control on Monday afternoon.
Investigators attended the scene on Tuesday to probe the cause of the blaze with firefighters remaining on site as a precaution, the Victorian Country Fire Authority said in a statement.
The 300 megawatt energy project was dubbed by Tesla chairman Robyn Denholm as a ‘‘humungous’’ battery the size of a gas turbine, pitting the US giant’s clean energy ambitions against the fossil fuel.
Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the new battery would assist in helping get more solar and wind energy into the state’s energy supply, and ease concerns about summer blackouts if higher temperatures push the state’s ageing coal-fired power stations beyond their operating limits.
French renewable operator Neoen funded the estimated $250m capital cost of building the battery, and will be paid about $12.5m a year under a service contract with the Australian Energy Market Operator to have 250MW of its 300MW capacity available for use at AEMO’s direction.
Neoen said the flames had died down on Friday evening and air quality had not been compromised.
“Though the flames had subsided by Friday evening, emergency services remained on site with Tesla staff and contractors to monitor the temperature decline of the two affected battery packs,” Neoen Australia managing director Louis de Sambucy said.
The EPA’s air monitoring showed that there has been good air quality within the surrounding community. Physical inspections and investigations are now underway.”
The Victorian energy project had been vying to grab the crown of the world’s largest battery, the latest system that can store output from wind and solar and supply it into the electricity grid when needed.
Mr Musk, founder of both electric car giant Tesla and rocket maker SpaceX, first built a giant South Australian battery system in 2017 in record time after reacting to a Twitter challenge from tech mogul Mike Cannon-Brookes to help fix the state’s electricity problems following summer blackouts.
Mr Cannon-Brookes brokered a deal between Mr Musk and then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to deploy the Tesla battery as a fix to the state’s power woes.
Victoria has a renewable energy target of 40 per cent by 2025 with the state hopeful the new battery would assist in helping get more solar and wind energy into the state’s energy supply.
Ms D’Ambrosio announced six new energy projects on Tuesday that will include infrastructure able to act as ‘shock absorbers’ to smooth out higher and lower rates of energy flowing through transmission lines, making it easier for renewable energy to enter the grid.
A new body, VicGrid, has also been tasked with the job of planning and developing the state’s renewable energy zones.
Separately, buy now pay later provider Humm has entered into a deal with LG Energy to provide virtual power plants to customers in Australia with a target of 10,000 systems in place by 2023.
Households must buy and install solar and an LG Energy battery and finance the purchase through Humm at an average price of about $17,000. While the customer owns the set-up, Diamond Energy manages sending power to the grid and gets a discounted electricity bill and an energy credit matched to the monthly instalment it owes to humm.