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From Breitbart: A massive fire broke out at a Californian power plant early Friday morning, threatening one of the largest battery energy storage facilities in the world.
The blaze began in a building containing lithium-ion batteries hours earlier, an official at the Monterey County Sheriff’s office told the BBC.
The Moss Landing power plant, run by Vistra Corp, was evacuated, as were people in the surrounding area. No injuries were reported.
Officials are not actively fighting the fire, the Monterey Sheriff spokesperson said, and are instead leaving the building and the batteries to burn on the advice of fire experts.
“There’s no way to sugar coat it. This is a disaster, is what it is,” Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church is quoted as saying.
Hundreds of nearby residents have been ordered to evacuate, and the local school has reportedly cancelled classes for Friday.
Officials have confirmed the fire is completely unrelated to the wildfires that have ravaged the Los Angeles area.
The battery plant is owned is owned by Vistra Energy, a Texas-based company, and contains tens of thousands of lithium batteries. It is located about 77 miles south of San Francisco.
Politico explained: The Texas-based Vistra finished its most recent phase of construction on the energy storage facility in 2023 as part of California’s efforts to bolster its grid with clean energy. It stores 750 megawatts, enough power for roughly 562,000 homes for up to four hours. California projects it will need 52,000 MW of energy storage, three times what it has now, by 2045 to meet energy needs while reaching its net-zero emissions goal.
Videos posted on social media show a massive fireball in the sky.
🚨#BREAKING: Evacuation orders have been issued after a lithium battery plant caught fire releasing hazardous toxins into the air⁰⁰📌#MossLanding | #Californa ⁰⁰Currently, numerous emergency crews are on the scene of a massive fire broke out at the Moss Landing Power Plant’s… pic.twitter.com/MMcpY0yka1
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) January 17, 2025
The world‘s largest lithium battery facility at Vistra Power Plant in Moss Landing, CA continues to burn.
Officials have no timeline for extinguishing the toxic blaze, but for reference the last lithium battery fire in California burned for 11 days pic.twitter.com/Cwignva06F
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) January 17, 2025
the Vistra battery storage facility in Moss Landing is on fire we’re live @ksbw pic.twitter.com/mo7asCpTNG
— Felix Cortez (@FelixKSBW) January 17, 2025
Local residents are also sharing videos on social media:
🔥GREEN ENERGY DISASTER🔥
A fire has broken out at California’s Moss Landing Power Plant, which contains tens of thousands of lithium batteries
Officials are NOT actively fighting the blaze
This is a huge issue with “green” energy. CA is aiming to make 90% of its grid… pic.twitter.com/jFFuWUxAWs
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 17, 2025
Hundreds of residents in Monterey County were told to evacuate and a section of Highway 1 was closed after a fire erupted at a battery storage plant in Moss Landing. https://t.co/Ki67mPlE2G
— KTVU (@KTVU) January 17, 2025
World’s largest battery plant on fire in Central California https://t.co/9MtNzeSSQl
— POLITICO (@politico) January 17, 2025
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