Monterey County authorities issued evacuation orders Thursday night after a fire broke out at a Vistra Energy battery storage facility, and evacuations are being prepared along the central coast.
The plant, located about 77 miles south of San Francisco, is owned by Vistra Energy of Texas and contains tens of thousands of lithium batteries.
The batteries are crucial for storing energy from renewable sources such as solar panels, but fires that start when they ignite can be extremely difficult to put out due to the chemical properties and composition of lithium batteries.
Vistra Energy, which owns the Moss Landing natural gas-fired power plant and an adjacent lithium-ion battery facility on the Monterey County coast, confirmed to US media that a fire broke out at one of its battery manufacturing facilities on Thursday afternoon and that staff were evacuated from the site. Due to the danger of the fire spreading, more than 1,500 civilians have been evacuated from the immediate vicinity of the factory.