A fire on a bucolic stretch of California coast has threatened the rapid growth of an industry considered key to greening the power grid — and keeping the lights on.
Midway through the afternoon of Jan. 16, flames erupted from one of America’s largest battery installations, next to an old power plant in the seaside hamlet of Moss Landing. The lithium-ion batteries, bigger versions of the devices that run laptops and electric cars, pumped a thick column of white and gray smoke into the sky and forced the evacuation of nearby homes. The fire, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco, burned for five days.
Now, it has become a rallying cry for people alarmed to find battery installations being planned in their neighborhoods. Electric utilities have been deploying big batteries at breakneck speed, seeing them as a way to store renewable power for when it’s needed and prevent blackouts during heat waves. In the past,