Tesla battery fire finally flamed out after four-day conflagration
- Reference: 1627976710
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/08/03/tesla_megapack_fire_australia/
- Source link:
The Country Fire Authority (CFA) in the state of Victoria [2]wrote that the fire was declared under control at 1505 AEST on Monday, August 2. The blaze fired up on Friday, July 30.
The fire burned all weekend, and at 0930 AEST on the Monday, the CFA said the blaze "has subsided significantly but is not yet under control."
[3]
Crews struggled to contain the blaze because water reacts with lithium-ion batteries to produce fire.
[4]Inventor of the graphite anode – key Li-ion battery tech – says he can now charge an electric car in 10 minutes
[5]Preliminary report on Texas Tesla crash finds Autosteer was 'not available' along road where both passengers died
[6]Apple iPad torched this guy's home, lawsuit claims
The CFA has confirmed that the blaze took root in a [7]Megapack – Tesla's shipping-container-sized batteries that can store 3 MWh of power. The project using the Megapack - 210 of them, to be precise, is called "The Big Battery" and will have capacity of 300 MegaWatt hoursonce repaired.
[8]
A Megapack that isn't on fire. Source: Tesla. Click to enlarge
The cause of the fire remains unknown, but investigations have commenced. CFA officials said the fire is the first known such incident to afflict a Megapack.
The site is still being monitored, as two adjacent Megapacks were damaged by heat. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/30/tesla_battery_on_fire/
[2] https://news.cfa.vic.gov.au/firefighters-bring-large-battery-fire-near-geelong-under-control
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQkTs5-g3mp08uefu7BtuQAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/14/rachid_yazami_the_future_of_ev_batteries/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/11/tesla_ntsb/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/27/apple_ipad_allegedly_torched_mans/
[7] https://www.tesla.com/en_au/megapack
[8] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/08/03/handout_tesla_megapack.jpg
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: How can we dance when our Earth is turning?
The point of these projects is to get *rid* of oil, midnight or otherwise.
(Terrific reference though - absolutely well done)
Re: How can we dance when our Earth is turning?
Boo! Somebody else already pointed out in the first article that it's not just the Auzzies' beds that are burning.
Extinguishers...
Maybe they need to keep some tanks of liquid nitrogen on-site for putting out fires; I suspect CO2 handheld extinguishers won't be up to the job.
I guess halon is out of the question.
I'm actually surprised the containers don't have piping for injecting such fire suppression measures.
Re: Extinguishers...
Won't work. LiIon cells are their own oxidiser and fuel source.
Re: Extinguishers...
I suspect LN2 would drop the temperature sufficiently to stop combustion.
Re: Extinguishers...
Lithium-Ion cells contain very little elemental lithium. The hazard is from the flammable liquid electrolyte combined with the tendency for thermal runaway when they're damaged. They need something other than plain water to extinguish them.
" Crews struggled to contain the blaze because water reacts with lithium-ion batteries to produce fire. " as stated by the article is not correct.
Re: Extinguishers...
Aus is big. The safest, cheapest and easiest solution is to do exactly what they did. Space the batteries out and let it burn.
My maths is bad but
210 megapacks each which store 3MWh to have a total storage of 300MWh
Where did the other 330MWh of storage go?
Re: My maths is bad but
ISTR the 300 was 300MW: the maximum output power, not 300WMh.
Re: My maths is bad but
(In any case, whoever wrote the phrase "3 MWh of power" could do with a gentle physics lesson on the difference between power and energy.)
By "under control"
They mean it's burnt itself out.
fire suppression entry pipe per container?
Something that the fire department or even the site staff can hook a hose up to and completely fill the problem battery container?
Obviously after the problem battery is first disconnected.
How can we dance when our Earth is turning?
How can we sleep when our Tesla batteries' are burning?