MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
California leads the nation in a race to deploy battery energy storage facilities. They bank electricity from sources like solar and wind so it can be used later. Experts say they are an important part of fighting climate change, but a fire this year at a battery facility is raising questions about how the plants should be regulated. Dan Brekke from member station KQED takes us to the California coast.
(SOUNDBITE OF GRAVEL CRUNCHING UNDERFOOT)
KIM SOLANO: But normally, we have growing in here everything that we use to make salsa.
DAN BREKKE, BYLINE: On a typical afternoon, Kim Solano would be presiding over a lunch rush. But on a recent weekday, with her restaurant closed, she's giving a tour of her kitchen greenhouse in Moss Landing on the coast 75 miles south of San Francisco.
SOLANO: I just did soil testing in here yesterday, so we'll see how that...
BREKKE: And what are you testing for?
SOLANO: We're testing for heavy metals.
BREKKE: That testing and the restaurant's closure are precautions Solano is taking after a January fire at a massive battery energy storage plant just a half-mile away. Some soil testing showed elevated levels of heavy metals nearby, and Solano is one of at least 12 local residents suing the plant's Texas-based owner, Vistra Energy.
SOLANO: I feel ashamed that I didn't ask the right questions early on when I started hearing about the idea of this plant coming into Moss Landing. I went along with the idea of we need green energy, and that seems like the best choice for us.
BREKKE: In a statement, Vistra points to other preliminary public agencies' soil, water and air testing that has shown no immediate public health hazard. The company says it's, quote, "committed to doing everything we can to do right by our community." But the fire is raising questions in other California communities about big battery storage facilities with residents in at least four counties opposing new plants.
NICK WARNER: I think ultimately the incident has tremendous potential to derail the industry, not just within California but across all of North America.
BREKKE: Nick Warner, a co-founder of the Energy Safety Response Group, which consults with plant owners and firefighting agencies, says backlash from Moss Landing could have a lasting impact.
WARNER: We have answered questions in Massachusetts, New York, Ontario and elsewhere around the continent.
BREKKE: Although the incident's cause is still under investigation, the view among industry experts is that the Moss Landing plant was uniquely vulnerable to a major fire. They say that's because the massive indoor facility featured thousands of closely spaced racks loaded with battery packs. That made it possible for fire to spread rapidly.
NOAH ROBERTS: The key here is that Moss Landing is truly an anomaly.
BREKKE: Noah Roberts is vice president for battery storage at the American Clean Power Association. The trade group says, unlike Moss Landing, virtually all battery plants are now built outdoors, and the facilities separate battery packs to reduce the chance that a fire in one unit could spread to others. Roberts says new plants should follow a voluntary national fire prevention standard tailored to battery systems. The standard is up to state or local authorities to adopt. It includes extensive requirements for facility design and testing of fire suppression and explosion control systems.
ROBERTS: The community should require that any new facility comply with the latest version of the National Fire Protection's standard.
BREKKE: Although the fire at Moss Landing was the highest-profile incident at a battery plant to date, it's far from the industry's only recent safety episode. California regulators have cited another eight incidents of overheating and fires at battery plants over the last three and a half years. A blaze at a San Diego County facility last May, for instance, burned for more than a week and prompted evacuations. The industry says the limited scope of most of these incidents show that improved fire standards and technology are making facilities safer. But...
SEVERIN BORENSTEIN: We can't take the battery industry's word for it.
BREKKE: Severin Borenstein does energy research at the University of California, Berkeley. He says regulators need to step up.
BORENSTEIN: So I think we need independent experts who can look into the risks of the newer designs and the older designs and say, you know, these are very safe and these are not so safe and change regulations accordingly.
BREKKE: California utility regulators took the first step in that direction last month, requiring plant owners for the first time to report safety incidents and to confer with local authorities on emergency action plans.
For NPR News, I'm Dan Brekke in Moss Landing, California. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
