"A massive U.S. battery storage project is offline in California, stoking reliability and safety questions about a technology that will be crucial to meeting future clean electricity goals.
The overheating of battery modules on Labor Day weekend affected a 300-megawatt facility at Vistra Corp.’s Moss Landing energy storage site. But the implications go beyond any one state, company or project.
That’s because energy storage offers one path to help offset the intermittency of fast-growing renewable energy capacity. A reliability problem with batteries is among the factors that could hamper the Biden administration’s efforts to decarbonize the U.S. power sector by 2035, not to mention countless midcentury state and corporate clean energy goals.
Experts caution that adjustments — from battery chemistry to management systems — may be needed to ensure large battery sites can stay online, especially as their role on the grid grows. There’s hope the industry will rise to the challenge, though changes come with costs."
Bob Meinetz
Top Contributor
Major Calif. battery outage highlights energy storage risks
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