A large fire erupted on Thursday at the Moss Landing battery plant, south of San Jose, Calif., closing Highway 1 and prompting local the authorities to issue evacuation orders for around 2,000 residents.
The plant, owned by Vistra Energy, is one of the largest battery storage sites in the world and holds tens of thousands of lithium-ion batteries that store electricity for the power grid.
It is unclear what had started the fire, which began around 3 p.m. on Thursday and sent up clouds of black smoke. By 10 a.m. on Friday, the fire was down to less than 5 percent of its original size, said Fire Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fire Protection District.
The blaze was unrelated to the wildfires that have broken out around Los Angeles, which is hundreds of miles to the south.
On Thursday evening, the sheriff’s office in Monterey County issued evacuation orders for a roughly eight-square-mile area around the plant. Residents elsewhere in the region were urged to close their windows and doors, turn off ventilation systems and avoid outdoor exposure until further notice while officials monitored air quality.
As of Friday morning, the evacuation order had not been lifted. Chief Mendoza said preliminary results suggested that the fire had not released certain hazardous gases known to be a danger to the public, but the authorities needed to conduct further tests and wanted to err on the side of caution before letting people return home.
Lithium-ion battery fires can last for hours and emit toxic hydrogen fluoride gases. The blazes can be extremely tough to extinguish, and often firefighters have to wait until they burn themselves out.
Jenny Lyon, a spokeswoman for Vistra, said that all personnel at the Moss Landing site had been safely evacuated and that an investigation into the cause of the blaze would begin once the fire was out.
Since 2018, California has installed more than 13,000 megawatts of grid batteries that largely soak up excess solar power during the daytime and feed electricity back to homes and businesses in the evening. By doing so, utilities are trying to reduce their reliance of natural gas, which contributes to global warming.
But battery fires are a growing concern. A different battery facility owned by Pacific Gas & Electric that was right next to the Moss Landing plant suffered a fire in 2022. Near San Diego, some residents have opposed a planned battery facility because of the fire risk.
Some battery companies are now using alternative chemistries that are less likely to catch fire, though lithium-ion batteries remain the dominant technology today.
At a news conference on Friday, a Monterey County supervisor, Glenn Church, called for an independent investigation into the fire, calling it a worst-case scenario. “There must be accountability for this,” Mr. Church said.
“This is really a lot more than just a fire, it’s a wake-up call for this industry,” Mr. Church added. “If we’re going to be moving ahead with sustainable energy, we need to have safe battery systems in place.”
