Not exactly breaking news but it's worth noting for those who have their solar battery packs inside their homes.

 

A Tesla Megapack part of a giant battery project in Victoria, Australia, has caught on fire – creating a blaze that’s almost impossible to control.

The cause of the fire is currently unknown.

More https://electrek.co/2021/07/30/tesla-megapack-caught-fire-giant-battery-project-australia/

 

 

 

Each of those MegaPack blocks holds up to 3MWh of energy, enough to keep many of us in power for 6 months!

 

In the event of a failure it has to go somewhere!

 

Which batteries do they house ? If i'm correct these are Li-ion based , like 18650 cell or similar . These batteries have advantages over Lifepo4 ( much larger capacity) but also disadvantages , biggest one being more unstable then lifepo4 . Li-ion should only be used by well known users/companies , since they build in several safety features , but even then it can happen . Lifepo4 is much more stable and can be used for building battery packs for home , also with safety features like BMS to not overload them .

This is important since not all battery techniques are the same , and news like that might set people of to use such systems while they are very good .

7 hours ago, sezze said:

If i'm correct these are Li-ion based

 

Yes, I believe you are correct, the same as they use in their vehicles.

 

Even with LiFePO4 I would keep the packs in a fireproof housing outside the house. They don't suffer from thermal runaway but an accidental short can still lead to conflagration.

The upshot is damage was limited to two packs, and repairs were prompt. For residential I would much rather go with a LFP chemistry than NMC, but at utility scale you need to pick lowest cost and design around it. Ironically NMC is low cost for Tesla.