Fire Breaks Out at Tesla Battery Power Station

Oh the humanity!

Battery Blaze

On Thursday night, a Tesla Megapack battery system burst into flames at a facility in Australia.

It's still not entirely clear why the massive energy storage unit caught fire, according to Electrek. But the fact that the blaze happened while running initial tests on the batteries suggests that there are still kinks to sort out before Tesla is fully able to help stabilize Australia's electrical grid — something the country has sorely needed.

Tesla has been working with the French renewable energy company Neoen to develop massive energy storage facilities in Australia for years — and in the face of this sudden fire, the Elon Musk-led company will need to sort out whether it's dealing with an unlikely glitch or an inherent flaw in the system that could put all its facilities at risk.

Wrong Button

Authorities aren't certain what made the Megapack combust, but Electrek notes that the fire started shortly after Neoen ran a test of the system. What we do know is that the fire stayed contained within the initial Megapack rather than spreading to the others in the massive grid — something Tesla reportedly planned for back when it was developing the Megapack's predecessor system, the Powerpack.

So as the fire rages — authorities say that it essentially needs to run its course for eight to 24 hours — the concern doesn’t seem to be a massive inferno suddenly flaring up. However, even one burning Megapack puts a lot of dangerous chemicals into the air, so authorities did end up issuing a toxic air quality warning for five nearby towns.

READ MORE: Tesla Megapack caught on fire at giant battery project in Australia [Electrek]

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