A fire at a one of the world’s largest battery plants in California contained tens of thousands of lithium batteries that store power from renewable energy sources.

Then in September 2022, a fire broke out at the PG&E Elkhorn battery plant. Police closed Highway 1 for 12 hours. An investigation found it was caused by an improperly installed vent shield on one of the 256 units, which allowed rainwater to get in and short out the batteries. There were no injuries to firefighters, PG&E employees or the public.

People living near a power plant in Central California were ordered to evacuate their homes Thursday night after a fire broke out at the facility, officials said.

It’s a major incident. All the resources in the county and our neighboring jurisdictions have been deployed ...'

Evacuations were lifted Friday night for people near an ongoing fire that erupted Thursday at one of the world’s largest battery storage plants in the northern half of California. Video circulating on social media showed smoke and flames erupting from the Moss Landing Power Plant on Thursday night in the Monterey County community of Moss Landing,

A water-based mitigation system did not work as designed, Vistra's senior director of community affairs Brad Watson said at the conference. "Part of what we will be doing is studying and investigating why that didn't work as designed.

Vistra stock dropped early Friday after news reports of a fire at a major energy storage lithium-ion battery facility.