An Australian battery project developer is working with Tesla Inc. to examine the cause of a blaze that impacted a megapack unit at a facility in Queensland.
Genex Power Ltd. said one of 40 megapacks at the Bouldercombe Battery Project in Rockhampton caught fire at about 7:45 p.m. local time Tuesday. The storage battery pack is being allowed to burn out under the supervision of firefighters and efforts have begun to determine what prompted the incident, the company said Wednesday in a statement.
“No other Megapack modules have been impacted. The fire is currently contained and the site has been disconnected from the grid,” Sydney-based Genex said in the statement.
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Australia is experiencing a boom in battery projects as the nation aims to replace coal-fired power plants with solar and wind generation backed up by giant energy storage farms. The nation needs to deploy about A$64 billion ($41 billion) to build out sufficient battery storage through 2050, according to the Australian Energy Market Commission, the government’s adviser on energy policy.
The Bouldercombe project is nearing the end of its commissioning phase and is scheduled to be completed by the end of October, Genex said.
A 2021 blaze at a similar project using Tesla packs near Geelong in southeastern Australia was determined to have probably been caused by coinciding short circuits triggered by a coolant leak outside the battery compartment.
