Fire crews have extinguished a blaze at Victoria’s new Tesla Big Battery, the largest lithium-ion battery in the country, after taking more than three days to bring it under control.
One of the Tesla megapack batteries at the site in Moorabool, near Geelong, caught fire during testing shortly after 10 am on Friday. The Victorian Big Battery, with a capacity of 300 megawatts and 450 megawatt-hours, is three times bigger than the initial size of billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla big battery built in South Australia in 2017.
Owned and operated by French renewable energy giant Neoen, the battery was scheduled to begin operating before this summer’s peak demand period.
Neoen Australia’s managing director Louis de Sambucy said the fire at the site has “subsided” by Friday evening. He said emergency services remained at the site with Tesla staff and contractors to monitor the temperature decline of two affected battery packs.
Firefighters have successfully completed the operation of opening all doors to the container of the battery, with no sign of fire,” the authority said.
CFA and @FireRescueVic continue to battle a fire at an electricity storage facility near Moorabool. The fire has subsided significantly, however it is still not yet under control as of this morning.https://t.co/k3CRnedM02#WeWorkAsOne pic.twitter.com/x9HZI2CP8J
— cfa_updates (@CFA_Updates) August 2, 2021
The authority said that, because of the nature of the fire – a 13-tonne battery – firefighters couldn’t put water on it or employ ordinary suppression methods. Instead, they had to let it “burn out” and wait for the container to cool down enough to open its doors.
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Source: theage
