An April 2019 fire and subsequent explosion which caused injuries to firefighters and destruction of a grid-scale battery storage system in Arizona likely started with an internal cell defect that caused the “preventable” incident, analysis has found.
Powin Energy VP Danny Lu has said that attaining what is considered the highest standard in safety means that projects using the company’s Stack 225 battery storage system products can be executed faster and pack more capacity onto a single site.
“The bottom line is that this is a good business decision. We will get back our money in eight to 10 years at the current price of power. As the price of energy goes up, we’ll pay it back even quicker.”
Lithium-ion battery manufacturer Samsung SDI has claimed an industry first, passing UL9540A test certification for the safe installation of stationary energy storage systems (ESS), with particular regard to the fire risk posed by thermal runaway.
After a power failure and fire at a battery storage system in South Korea was investigated, DNV GL has reported that “current approaches” for monitoring and preventing fires may be inadequate and could result in “small failures” becoming “major issues”.
KORE Lithium Technologies Inc (KORE Power), a US headquartered manufacturer of nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery racks for the utility-scale stationary energy storage market, has retained renewable energy investor CohnReznick Capital as its Investment Bank of Record.
One of New Zealand’s main gas and electric distribution companies has turned to distributed energy storage systems as a cost-effective alternative to long-distance wires and related infrastructure.
An EV and stationary energy storage battery start-up headed by former SpaceX, Tesla, Apple, Amazon and Samsung designers and engineers has mobilised almost US$100 million of financing and contracts to kickstart manufacturing operations.
Regulations for the safe use of energy storage systems still need adaptation to “accommodate a broader use of energy storage with higher energy content like lithium-ion batteries in private homes”, experts at Fraunhofer ISE (Institute for Solar Energy Systems) have said.
