Major fire at Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, California, multi-day incident

What happened

In January 2025, a fire broke out during the afternoon in one building of the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility (Phase 1, MOSS300) in Moss Landing, Monterey County, California, United States, a large grid-scale lithium-ion battery energy storage facility operated and owned by Vistra Energy. The affected phase was housed in a large repurposed building with battery racks arranged throughout a single enclosed space, rather than in the modular containerised units more common at installations of this size.

Local authorities activated their emergency operations centre at a high level of response, and in the order of one to two thousand residents were evacuated. A nearby major highway was closed for approximately 12 hours. The fire diminished the following evening and evacuated residents were permitted to return. A reignition occurred several weeks later and was brought back under control within about 24 hours. At the time of the underlying public reporting, roughly two thirds of the battery units on site, manufactured by LG Energy Solution, had been de-energised and removed for off-site recycling.

The site used NMC lithium-ion chemistry. Three earlier thermal events had been reported at the site and at a neighbouring facility in 2021 and 2022, all described as more limited overheating incidents that did not result in fires of this scale. The cause of the January 2025 fire was undetermined at the time of the underlying public reporting, with a formal investigation in progress. This entry reflects only the publicly confirmed facts of the incident and the response, and a follow-up entry is warranted once investigation conclusions are published.

Contributing factors

Causation for the January 2025 event at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility remained under investigation at the time of reporting, so the following are factors noted in public reporting rather than findings. Sources described the affected phase as using a repurposed building enclosure with batteries in close proximity throughout, in contrast to the modular containerised approach used at most other installations of comparable size. Commentators quoted in public reporting observed that the scale of the loss appeared related to the fire load available within a single enclosed space and the limited physical barriers to propagation. Public reporting on the site's earlier thermal incidents in 2021 and 2022 associated them with sprinkler and cooling system issues that released water onto battery racks made with LG Energy Solution cells. Those earlier events did not result in fires of this scale, but were reported as indicating more than one failure mode at the site.

Lessons learned

1. Grid-scale storage in a single large building rather than separate containers requires review of total fire load and internal barriers to limit propagation between racks.
2. A pattern of repeated minor thermal events at a site should trigger a documented root cause review before adding further capacity.
3. Plan in advance for reignition during the days and weeks after the initial event, including continued monitoring and safe removal of damaged units.

More lessons on spacing, layout and fire spread, detection and monitoring, from every incident on the register.

Not yet known

• Battery model and age
• Cost of the damage and downtime
• Investigation conclusions on root cause

This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.

Source

Energy-Storage.news (energy-storage.news)