Al Norman’s May 19 “Push Back” column blurs the distinction between different chemistries of lithium ion battery. He describes the thermal runaway effect risk present in the type of battery presently used in laptops and most electric cars. This also was the chemistry involved in the notorious Moss Landing facility that burnt in California, i.e. batteries with a lithium cobalt oxide cathode.
If you’re worried that a BESS facility is a danger to you, you might want to find out whether it will use that chemistry or the less fire prone lithium iron phosphate chemistry. On the other hand, if your purpose is to promote a pseudo-environmentalist, rural nativist, single family home only, anti-ADC agenda then by all means add that to your arsenal of rhetorical tricks.
Myself, after reading that column I’d half like to buy some land to put some batteries on. But with that kind of money I could move closer to where my friends live and bid this region adieu, so no.
Mike Small
Greenfield