5 fires in 5 years! The former world’s largest lithium battery ESS power station is on fire again!

According to foreign media reports, in the early morning of September 18 local time, the Moss Landing energy storage power station in Monterey County, California, caught fire again.

It is reported that this is already the fifth fire at the Moss Landing energy storage power station. The station is located in Monterey County, about 124 kilometers south of San Francisco, and is invested and operated by the US publicly listed firm Vistra Energy. It was built on the site of a retired PG&E gas-fired power plant, with energy storage batteries supplied by South Korean battery company LG Energy Solution.

The Moss Landing energy storage power station was once the world's largest energy storage project, built in three phases with a total scale of 750MW/3000MWh. Phase I, with a capacity of 300MW/1200MWh, began operations on December 11, 2020; Phase II has an installed capacity of 100MW/400MWh; Phase III added 350MW/1400MWh, bringing the final total to 750MW/3000MWh.

Vistra Energy also stated that the Moss Landing energy storage power station could ultimately be expanded to 1.5GW/6GWh, enough to power approximately 1.125 million households.

The Moss Landing energy storage power station was supposed to be a critical support for California's power grid peak shaving and renewable energy consumption, but repeated fires have raised global concerns about energy storage safety.

Looking back, the first fire at the Moss Landing energy storage power station occurred the year after it was connected to the grid:

On September 4, 2021,the first fire incident at Phase I of the energy storage power station occurred when the water-based cooling system malfunctioned and mistakenly sprayed battery racks, causing overheating and smoke. About 7% of battery modules were damaged, and the project was subsequently shut down. In January 2022, Vistra Energy announced investigation results and decided to resume operations in batches.

On February 13, 2022,a water pipe leak caused battery short circuits and smoke, leading to the second incident at Phase II of the energy storage power station. About 10 battery racks melted, and Vistra Energy immediately suspended the Phase II restart plan and continued off-grid assessment.

Vistra Energy emphasized that the two incidents were "overheating and smoke" caused by water-based cooling system malfunctions, not fires, and that both incidents were controlled and did not affect the public.

The third fire, which occurred on January 16, 2025,was the most severe, and the cause has not yet been determined, though reports suggest an internal fire suppression system failure led to loss of control. The fire again involved Phase I, and approximately 1,500 nearby residents were evacuated. Highway 1 was closed, and about 55% of the batteries were damaged by the fire.

Subsequently, Vistra Energy announced it would take a $400 million asset impairment write-off for the Moss Landing energy storage project, equivalent to the entire remaining book value of the facility.

On February 18, 2025,the fourth fire occurred at the Moss Landing energy storage power station. Vistra Energy confirmed smoke was detected at the site of the third fire, and the reignition burned itself out after more than 8 hours, with damage to the energy storage facility exceeding 70%. The damaged energy storage facilities at the project require specialized handling, packaging, transportation, and recycling in accordance with US Environmental Protection Agency regulatory procedures. In September 2025, American Battery Technology Company (ABAT) received formal approval from the US EPA to receive battery scrap related to the Moss Landing energy storage power station fire incidents through its battery recycling facility in Nevada, and successfully dismantled the first battery group that month.

The fifth fire occurred during post-disaster cleanup.According to the North Monterey County Fire Department, a fire alarm was received at the Moss Landing power plant shortly after 6:15 a.m. on September 18, 2026. Upon arrival, firefighters found thick smoke and visible flames on the north side of the facility. Firefighters conducted hazard control operations while evacuating station staff, and nearby residents were ordered to shelter in place.

The interim head of North Monterey County confirmed in a briefing that the fire involved approximately 1,200 battery modules that were damaged in the January 2025 fire, could not be removed, and remained energized.

It is reported that by noon that day, there were no active flames at the fire site, but it remained in a "smoldering state," and the situation was "very dynamic," with the potential for reignition at any time.

Notably, after the third fire, all battery facilities at the energy storage power station went offline, and Phase II has never been reconnected to the grid. In February 2026, Vistra Energy officially announced that Phase II would not resume operations. Phase III, which was supposed to be operational in June 2023, was also forced to halt. In February 2026, Vistra Energy stated that Phase III is still being evaluated for restart, with efforts to resume operations within 2026, making it the only battery asset in the park that could potentially be "revived."

The five fires at the Moss Landing energy storage power station, a five-year risk struggle, and repeated fires and evacuation orders have generated strong resistance from surrounding communities toward energy storage projects and delivered a profound warning to the industry: energy storage safety must not stop at "fire suppression" but must shift to full life cycle risk management covering "design-operation-post-disaster."

Currently, energy storage batteries are accelerating to become the second-largest growth driver of the lithium battery market, with growth already surpassing power batteries, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming years.

According to the "China Energy Storage Battery Industry Development White Paper (2026)" jointly released by research firm EVTank, the Ivan Institute of Economics, and the China Battery Industry Research Institute, global ESS battery shipments reached 651.5GWh in 2025, up 76.2% YoY, and global ESS battery shipments are expected to exceed 2TWh by 2030.

The penetration rate of energy storage batteries continues to rise, with diverse scenarios rapidly scaling up, and medium and long-term growth potential remains enormous. However, safety issues cannot be ignored. It is necessary to build a multi-layered defense system covering the entire life cycle, from "intrinsic safety" at the battery cell level, to "monitoring and early warning" at the system level, to "fire suppression" and "operations and maintenance management" at the power station level.