Another link to a story about the Megapack fire, with photos: https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/30/22602411/neoen-tesla-mega...
Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
21–30 of 66 posts
Re: Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
#22Not a car battery. > a 13-tonne lithium battery inside a shipping container The other ~99 container battery packs survived.
Re: Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
#23>> inside a shipping container These things don't look like shipping containers. They appear to be the same size/shape and have the proper attachment points to be handled as shipping containers, but are they actual containers? Even Tesla wouldn't go so far as to mount batteries inside standard shipping containers. They might make ok housing but with all the thermal/electrical issues a bespoke design would be appropri…
Re: Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
#24Re: Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
#25Wow something from Melbourne comes to the first rank in HN! actually I still can't find any explanation why the fire starts at all. Or maybe they haven't found out yet Edit: I don't get the downvotes, I am from Melbie, nothing is controversial here
If a phone battery say catches fire it's generally not such a big deal - it's not surrounded by a million other phone batteries, and won't take four days to burn out.
Re: Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
#26According to recent reports[1], Tesla is transitioning to using Iron Phosphate (LFP) Li-ion cells in it's Megapack stationary storage products. Unlike nickel-based cells, LFP is highly resistant to fire and thermal runaway. Presumably, this particular installation was still using nickel-based cells. [1] https://cleantechnica.com/2021/05/11/tesla-transitions-to-lf...
Who's paying for the transition? The customer or Tesla? Funny this got downvoted. Was this comment controversial in any way?
It's not as if someone somewhere sits down and makes this choice. Tesla charges prices the market wants to pay, at volumes Tesla can manufacture, and tries to minimize its expenses. What happens in the end in terms of profit and loss is subject to literally thousands of variables, not just a change in a battery pack tech.
This is especially the case for an industry that's heavily into R&D and innovation.
Re: Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, so only the 1 would be likely to start a massive bushfire if this happened in summer? That makes me feel better.
Any more likely than a gas/diesel fire? I'd imagine most of the fire risk is at the start, when first responders haven't arrived yet. Once they arrive any wildfire risk is minimal because it can be immediately put out. In that respect there probably isn't a big difference between a gas fire that burns for 1hr and a battery fire that burns for 4 days.
You're right most of the risk is at the start - my anger is directed at a big U.S. tech company landing Victorian firefighters with a babysitting job.
Re: Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
#28Wow something from Melbourne comes to the first rank in HN! actually I still can't find any explanation why the fire starts at all. Or maybe they haven't found out yet Edit: I don't get the downvotes, I am from Melbie, nothing is controversial here
Re: Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
#29Re: Firefighters bring large battery fire near Geelong under control
#30According to recent reports[1], Tesla is transitioning to using Iron Phosphate (LFP) Li-ion cells in it's Megapack stationary storage products. Unlike nickel-based cells, LFP is highly resistant to fire and thermal runaway. Presumably, this particular installation was still using nickel-based cells. [1] https://cleantechnica.com/2021/05/11/tesla-transitions-to-lf...
Who's paying for the transition? The customer or Tesla? Funny this got downvoted. Was this comment controversial in any way?