Days before President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office and took actions to stall the transition to clean energy, a disaster unfolded on the other side of the country that may have an outsize effect on the pace of the transition.
A fire broke out last Thursday at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California, one of the largest battery energy storage systems in the world. The fire raged through the weekend, forcing local officials to evacuate nearby homes and close roads.
Battery storage is an essential part of the transition away from fossil fuels. It works in tandem with solar and wind power to provide electricity during periods when the renewable resources aren’t available. But lithium-ion batteries, the most common technology used in storage systems, are flammable. And if they catch fire, it can be difficult to extinguish.
Last week’s fire is the latest and largest of several at the Moss Landing site in recent years, and I expect that it will become the main example opponents of carbon-free electricity use to try to stop battery development in other places.
Only if you ignore all the leaking pipelines, oil refinery fires, leaking methane, oil spills, coal emissions, etc…
it’s a bit rich. “opponents of carbon-free electricity” are suddenly opposed to burning things huh?
anyway, there is actually a way to reduce our need for batteries AND fossil fuels. Nuclear.
Of course they’re conveniently ignoring refineries catching fire or even gas station explosions. That seem to be regular events.
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that’s just nonsense.
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I put as much effort into my rebuttal as you did in your initial comment. If you want an actual conversation, by all means begin any time you like.
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rebuttal: yes it is.
great conversation! feel free to add any context, reasoning, or citations to support your opinion.
I’m sure the right wing will use this s as an excuse to bash renewables while conveniently ignoring all the unburied power lines that have burned down half of California.
Meanwhile, most battery installations are moving to sodium ion and it’s far less flammable.
The fact that it didn’t burst into flames while every building did means that the battery plants are resilient enough for anywhere else.
“A massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico could cast a dark shadow on fossil fuel expansion”
Humans are fucking stupid and I hate having to share this planet with y’all
It’s a war situation, but - Russian tankers having mysterious problems spilling oil are destroying Black Sea ecosystems right now. Nobody even hears of that FFS.
That can be interpreted in favor of oil too. I’ll explain - what they cry about in media more is what the weaker side does bad, or the stronger side does good, and vice versa, and also lies on both. If the general publicity is in favor of oil, it means oil is objectively in such demand now that it gives power bigger than renewables, despite geopolitical access to natural resource not being required for renewables, despite renewables being autonomous and nicer, etc.
Until using renewables makes one more powerful than using oil, this won’t change. This requires not demanding more use of the or fighting use of fossil fuels, this requires technology improvements.
(I’ve got migraine now, sorry for using too many words)
Only if the media paints it that way for ad impressions.
I think the bigger issue for clean energy is how many poor nations rely on fossil fuel engines and what have you. Do we force them further behind the rest of the world? Or do we pick up their slack? I hope its the latter but idk.
Fires in California, you say? Yeah…about that…
gestures towards every year for the past 20 years
I think the keepers of this facility themselves already said they were not prepared for this situation, so that’s the problem right there. The technology is fine.
