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A fire broke out at Vistra Corp.’s Moss Landing complex in California, one of the world’s biggest battery storage facilities, prompting evacuation orders for residents in the area. Parts of Highway 1 were also closed.
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Bloomberg News
Linus Chua and Naureen S. Malik
Published Jan 17, 2025 • 1 minute read
(Bloomberg) — A fire broke out at Vistra Corp.’s Moss Landing complex in California, one of the world’s biggest battery storage facilities, prompting evacuation orders for residents in the area. Parts of Highway 1 were also closed.
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The Monterey County Sheriff told residents to close windows and shut off air systems “out of an abundance of caution,” before issuing evacuation orders an hour later. More than 2,000 people were told to evacuate, the sheriff’s office told CNN. The plant is located about 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of San Francisco.
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Vistra’s shares fell as much as 3.4% after closing at a record high on Thursday of $174. The stock has been a major beneficiary of expectations that demand for the company’s power plants and battery facilities will soar as artificial intelligence boosts energy consumption.
The Moss Landing battery facility has 350 megawatts of capacity and was dubbed the largest of its kind when it was completed in 2023, supplying California with electricity. The state grid now has about 10 gigawatts of utility-scale batteries, which charge during the day when solar power is plentiful and then provide power when the sun sets. Most lithium-ion batteries are made using a highly flammable liquid electrolyte.
The facility, which was brought online in stages, first went into service in December 2020. In 2021, some of the battery modules were taken offline because of overheating, setting off a sprinkler system. The incident was contained, Vistra and the fire department said at the time. Some of the batteries there were supplied by South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, while utility PG&E Corp. also owns hundreds of Tesla Inc. battery units used at the site.
—With assistance from Sing Yee Ong and Stephen Stapczynski.
(Updates with additional details throughout.)
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English (US)