Batteries have been in use for many purposes for a long time, many of the lithium-ion type. Lithium-ion batteries are used for1:

• Portable consumer electronics; mobile phones, computers, tablets, digital cameras, watches, and wireless headphones

• Electric vehicles; cars, bikes, scooters, and boats

• Medical equipment, such as pacemakers and mobility devices

• Power tools and portable power packs

 

They are a safe means of storing electricity for use when needed.

 

Batteries in some small electronics have a history of fires like those in small electronics that people bring on airplanes. But have you ever heard of a wristwatch fire caused by a battery? Off-the-grid people have depended on and safely used battery storage for decades, even using the older and less safe batteries and battery systems. So, some batteries have always been safe to use, and some not. Now, improvements in battery materials and encasements make it less likely that any lithium-ion battery that is properly manufactured and regulated, will cause a fire.

 

To better understand about lithium-ion battery fires, one must acknowledge that most of the battery fires have involved poorly manufactured and poorly regulated batteries or chargers. Bicycle batteries are currently the most common source of battery related fires because their cost drives people to replace them with lower cost, unregulated batteries or to buy chargers that are also not well made. Reputable manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries have improved their products, so they are now recyclable, safe, and longer lasting. This last point makes it rare for a battery to need replacing, and thus, less likely that a lesser quality battery will be put into these small electronic devices. Also, most people replace their device before its original battery needs to be replaced.

 

What about large-scale battery storage, the kind and size that utilities and large energy users would employ? They can store electricity from traditionally or renewably generated sources when it is overproduced for use when it is needed. Now, with improvements in technology, almost all the lithium in batteries is recoverable and reuseable cutting down the amount of mining needed to source it, and the metal of the battery cases is reusable (i.e., recyclable). Because energy from batteries is available when power plants cannot produce enough to meet the demand (during peak usage periods), it saves all of us the cost and cuts the air pollution that additional new non-renewable power plants would cause. It would also stabilize our cost because the price for wind and sun do not go up the way the cost of fossil fuels does.

 

Incidents of fire in small battery electronics, including bicycles, seems to have fueled a fear of large-scale battery energy storage system fires. But they are not related. Quite a few large-scale battery energy storage facilities are already in existence with the first installed in 20032. The percentage of them that have gone on fire is negligible, especially when compared to the number and severity of fires caused by oil, gas, propane, gasoline, and other fuels. And newer battery units like those at the RR station in Croton, use lithium-iron-phosphate, a material that has never had a fire.

 

It has also been widely said that battery fires are hard to put out. Well, yes, with water which most firefighters use to put out a fire. But battery fires burn themselves out while the small amount of gas and particulates that are created by the fire, stay inside the case. Because the fire is contained in a case, the fires result in truly little air, land or water pollution compared to other types of fires. Buildings, for example, emit huge black clouds of chemicals and sparks because of all the combustible materials in them and the fire not being contained. Oil and gasoline fires cannot be extinguished with water either. Batteries have comparatively few chemicals to outgas or emit particulates. While battery fires are hotter than fires in other burnable materials, that heat is encased, and the fire department water helps keep the case cool. Because no sparks or burning materials can escape the case, fire does not spread to other buildings, woods, or fields the way fire in a building can. Because water is a primary substance used by firefighters to extinguish conventional fires and it is ineffective at putting out battery fires, firefighters need to be trained so they will not fear battery fires and so they know what to do should one occur. In NY State, battery storage developers are required to host site-specific training before building a project. Once trained, firefighters have less to do and less to worry about to contain the fire. And if the large-scale battery storage units contain non-lithium-ion batteries, even better.

 

A question you should ask yourself is what fire causes greater damage to people, their property, and the environment - a fire at a fuel storage facility or one at a battery storage facility? For me, beyond a doubt, the answer is the fire at a fossil fuel storage or processing facility.

 

One last point. For us living and working on an island that is slowly being taken over by increasing water levels in the seas, transitioning to energy sources that do not cause sea level rise is critical and should be welcomed with open arms. The energy sources that can reduce our susceptibility and can be deployed at large-scale are solar and wind. We have the fortune of being in a place where wind is blowing almost all the time, but there are days when it is not strong enough to generate enough electricity. Similarly for solar - there are days when there is not enough sun to generate enough electricity to meet our needs. These are the times when large-scale battery storage is the answer for how to make those renewable sources work for us. Without being able to store surplus production, the clean energy transition is harder to complete.

 

In my humble opinion, stories about the negatives of battery storage have been blown out of proportion and some are downright untrue though most are only distortions of fact. They have caused undo concern. Is it because the battery storage at large scale is something new?

 

For more information and ways to get involved, visit https://www.greenlightamerica.org/ 

 

1 Wikipedia Lithium-ion battery - Wikipedia

2 Battery Storage in the United States: An Update on Market Trends or https://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/electricity/batterystorage/pdf/battery_storage_2021.pdf