Monterey County authorities issued evacuation orders Thursday night after a fire broke out at a battery storage facility along the Central Coast that the company claims is the largest in the world.
Vistra Energy, which owns the natural gas-fueled Moss Landing Power Plant and adjoining lithium-ion battery facility on the Monterey County coast, confirmed in an email a fire had broken out in one of its batteries Thursday afternoon and that it had evacuated on-site personnel.
“The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but an investigation will begin once the fire is extinguished,” said spokesperson Jenny Lyon.
The Monterey County Sheriff had earlier told nearby residents to close windows “out of an abundance of caution.” The California Highway Patrol also closed Highway 1 around the plant.
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.
Vistra’s Moss Landing battery complex suffered damage from a malfunctioning heat detector in 2021. A small fire also broke out in 2022 at an adjoining battery plant owned by Pacific Gas & Electric and supplied by Tesla.
Safety concerns fueled a ballot measure last year further down the coast in Morro Bay aimed at blocking Vistra from getting local permits to construct a battery facility near a power plant there. The measure passed in November, but will do little to stop the project, which is instead going through a fast-tracked state permitting process.
