I have always expressed concern over the environmental impact of so-called green energy solutions: the carbon footprints, emissions offshoring, cost, inability to compete without taxpayer support, high cost, and the pressure they put on electricity prices. Then there’s the environmental end-of-life costs and the industry and government indifference to creating EOL green superfund sites on purpose and calling anyone who asks the wrong questions deniers.
It’s a scam from back to front and beginning to end, and you can call me what you like because I’ve got the same attitude as Tom Homan (language warning). I’m a lot more interested in reality and if you live in Portsmouth, there’s a big pile of it landing on your doorstep.
Green is not clean and when it fails it is worse than the alternative.
We’ve reported on two separate fires at the Moss Battery Storage Facility in California. It was built to store power created by intermittent sources and – just like they claim for the proposed facility at Schiller Station in Portsmouth – to store power in the event or demand issues requiring a boost to supply. Moss just went up in smoke again. The third fire in three years. And the results of these fires are not a small matter.
Smoke was reported at the Vistra Battery Facility in Monterey County around 6:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday night, prompting local officials to urge residents to close doors and windows out of an abundance of caution for possible air quality issues, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. The same facility was the site of a massive blaze in January that kicked a large plume of black smoke over the surrounding area. Residents reported health problems in the immediate aftermath of the January fire. …
The January fire prompted evacuations for nearby residents, and a team of researchers affiliated with San Jose State University announced shortly after the incident that they had detected significantly increased concentrations of toxic heavy metals in the Elkhorn Slough, a large intertidal area approximately one mile away from the Vistra Energy battery storage facility.
Researchers said their analysis shows that concentrations of certain heavy metals were 100 to 1,000 times higher than typical levels.
Additionally, residents reported noticeable health problems — such as itchy eyes and headaches — in the aftermath of the January blaze, though the company maintains that “there are no hazardous air conditions or risks to public health.”
These might not compare to the emissions that resulted from the Fires in LA County, but we’re forced again to ask the question. How many Teslas do you have to sell to offset the emissions from one EV car fire? These vehicles are already not as clean as claimed, and when they burn, containment is the most common solution while they puke heavy metal toxins into the surrounding air, soil, and water.
A battery facility has an exponential impact, especially when it’s burned three times in as many years.
EV fires have broken out is bus depots, on ships, at the Rivian production facility parking lot and even in a firestation that burned to the ground after an EV rescue vehicle combusted taking out all the other equipment.
I keep asking Portsmouth if it is prepared to make that trade off? Are you willing to virtue signal a battery storage facility on the shore of the Piscataqua river in exchange for the risk it presents, especially when it isn’t necessary or even green?
