Fire in small battery storage unit at ITRI solar site, Longjing District, Taichung
Mar 2022Published 7 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
- Where
- ITRI solar storage site, Longjing District, Taichung City, Taiwan
- Operator
- Industrial Technology Research Institute
- What
- Fire in small battery storage unit with NMC cells
- Injuries
- None reported
- Response
- Fire services arrived in 13 minutes and extinguished fire after one hour
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Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): Industrial Technology Research Institute
What happened
In 2022 a fire broke out in a small battery storage installation co-located with solar generation at the ITRI Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories solar storage demonstration site in Longjing District, Taichung City, Taiwan, operated by the Industrial Technology Research Institute. Local fire services were notified and arrived in about 13 minutes, brought the fire under control roughly 19 minutes later and reported it fully extinguished around an hour after the initial call.
No injuries were reported. The system used cylindrical nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) lithium-ion cells and had been in service for approximately two years. The cause was not confirmed at the time of reporting. The event prompted wider discussion in the sector about cell chemistry selection and about operations and maintenance arrangements for storage deployed alongside solar demonstration projects.
Contributing factors
Reporting at the time stated that no root cause had been confirmed. Commentary published alongside the reports noted that some demonstration-scale storage projects lack a dedicated operations and maintenance budget, and included unverified speculation that a small animal may have entered the enclosure. Neither point was established as a cause.
Lessons learned
- Lithium-ion battery storage at a solar site needs a dedicated operations and maintenance budget and named inspection responsibility.
- Enclosures for battery storage must have verified ingress protection and sealed entries to keep out pests and small animals.
- Cell chemistry selection for storage must include thermal stability and propagation behaviour as well as energy density.
More lessons on maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, electrical protection and isolation, spacing, layout and fire spread, from every incident on the register.
Not yet known
- Root cause of the fire
- Battery system model and manufacturer
- Duration of any downtime
- Cost of damage and repairs
This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.
Source
Other entries that name Longjing Taichung
Published 2026-09-07. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
