Since 2012 there have been over 79 BESS failure events and almost 20 other Energy Storage Failure Events from 2019 – 2024. The number of BESS facilities is increasing exponentially in 2024 and beyond and this could mean more catastrophic failures are coming.

Although there are safety measures in place these cannot guarantee that a failure in one of the thousands of mega battery packs will not fail and that the installed suppression systems won’t fail like they did in the three BESS fires that happened in New York in the summer of 2023.

These fires are called thermal runaway events and can be triggered by faults in the batteries themselves, improper charging, even weather events. Once a battery pack catches on fire it can burn for days. Such as the BESS fire in Warwick, NY that smoldered for more than a week. Chances of the fire reigniting are high in BESS fires and these fires release toxic smoke, fumes and ash that can be harmful to people and can also contaminate the ground and the water.

The Lithium-ion batteries used in BESS facilities are prone to thermal runaway events which can lead to explosions and fires. The BESS Failure Event Database documents publicly-available data on battery energy storage failure events around the world and other Energy Storage Failure Events such as from recycling facilities, manufacturing and electric vehicles.