A giant Tesla battery caught fire. The power storage burned for three days while 150 firefighters tried to put out the fire. The authorities warned residents.
A giant Tesla battery burned in Australia for three days. The so-called Megapack caught fire during tests on Friday last week, the authorities announced on Monday. It is still unclear exactly why the 13-ton battery that is located in a shipping container started to burn. The fire spread to another battery, according to the authorities. The system was disconnected from the power grid during the extinguishing work.
According to local authorities, it took three days to control the flames and to safely open the doors to the battery. 150 firefighters and more than 30 emergency vehicles were on site. These included numerous specialists. A scientific expert was on-site to monitor the air and drones were also used, as the Country Fire Authority (CFA) writes in a message.
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“Toxic smoke”
As the local TV station “7News Melbourne” reports, residents were warned of “toxic smoke” in the region. After the mission, some firefighters stayed on-site to continue monitoring the situation. The cause of the fire should now be clarified with the help of specialists.
The giant battery is part of a large system in the so-called Victoria Big Battery Project in Moorabool near Geelong in the state of Victoria. The place is about an hour’s drive south of Melbourne. The plant was built by the French company Neoen. In total, there are over 200 so-called megapacks at this location. The plant has an output of 450-megawatt hours. That is enough to supply half a million households with electricity for around an hour, say the operators. The main task of the system, however, is to feed electricity into the unstable network and thus prevent power outages.
Tesla had presented the so-called Megapack in 2019. Various battery modules are installed in the reused shipping container. The product of the electric car manufacturer is primarily aimed at the providers of power supply.
