Another Tesla Big Battery Catches Fire in Australia, This Time in Queensland

This is the third Megapack and Powerpack fire that has emerged in a bit more than two years and the second one in Australia. The first happened on July 30, 2021. A Megapack caught fire in the Victorian Big Battery in Victoria, Australia, while it was still on tests. It was later determined that the combustion happened due to a short circuit. The second one started at 1:30 AM on September 20 in Monterey County, California. The Elkhorn Battery Storage facility fire demanded Highway 1 be closed so that firefighters could use one of its sections to extinguish the fire.

The police received a warning about the fire at 7:45 PM local time on September 26. The first report from the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services was published at 10:35 PM. According to the firefighters, they had to move "multiple Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) crews" to the scene "on Childs Avenue, Bouldercombe." The following morning, the firefighters said the blaze was controlled "with crews continuing to monitor the situation."

Ironically, Fitzroy Zone Commander John Platt told ABC News that members of the public should not worry about toxic gas issues. It is not clear if he was trying to reassure residents, but his statement contradicted what the department itself recommended. On its website, it states that "nearby residents are advised to keep doors and windows closed, and those suffering from a respiratory condition should keep their medications close by."

Neighbors of the facility took pictures and filmed the fire. David Bailey told ABC News that the blaze produced flames in different colors and that he heard a few bangs and pops. Although he took some pictures of the whole thing, Bailey said he was not so close that he could smell the smoke. Frank Lawrence was not that lucky. He lives "next door to the site" and said he could smell plastic burning as soon as he woke up.

Other people living in the area but not so close to the site went to Facebook to ask what had happened. Rebecca Hill asked what had happened "in Norman Gardens" on the "Rockhampton Community Notice Board" group. Several people said that the "lights flickered" in the area. On the same page, Danielle Leigh asked what the "big weird loud sound, then power flicker" close to Kawana was. Betty Turnley said it sounded like a gunshot. Dave Barrand even went outside his home because he thought a car crash had happened. While some of the commenters answered correctly, some others said a transformer had blown.

Tesla is only the seller of the Megapacks. Like Neoen owned and managed the Victorian Big Battery, Genex Power controls the Bouldercombe Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), aka Big Bessie. It went online on July 23. The company said that "the fire is being allowed to burn out under the supervision of the fire brigade." That would be a procedure recommended by "the Queensland fire brigade and protocols provided by Tesla."

Some Australians have not taken this as lightly as Genex or the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. John Cadogan shared a video where he comments on the situation in NSFW terms. According to the youtuber, there are two dams pretty close to the energy storage complex, built to store the energy generated by a wind farm nearby.

Senator Gerard Rennick shared a video of the fire that shows some pops here and there, but his words impress more than the images. By the end of his text, he (or his team) wrote: "Another day, another lithium battery catching fire. It's amazing how the powers that be refuse to see the obvious. Talk about see no evil, hear no evil." That's a clear reference to the other battery storage system that caught fire in Australia.

The senator reproduced a text that explains why lithium-ion cells demand "thousands of liters of water" to be extinguished. "Even though batteries are way less energy dense than petrol, they generate their own oxygen when they burn. Fuel does not."

A bit more than a year ago, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) filed a lawsuit against the Tesla Big Battery in Australia's Federal Court. The agency argued that the battery energy storage system did not provide frequency control ancillary services (FCAS) despite being paid to do so. In other and more straightforward words, it did not keep the power grid stable as it should – which was its primary goal.

If they were at least doing their job, perhaps people try to defend these energy storage systems a little more. With them going on fire like this, companies may keep pursuing cheaper and more sensible ideas not to lose solar and wind power. They may as well try to explore new generation nuclear power plants, which promise to be much safer than the facilities activists and ill-informed politicians try to demonize.