Big battery installations always received lots of international attention, with few objections to this kind of positive exposure. HN alone had dozens of submissions on the topic [0]. Your objection now seems to be more towards the negative exposure. What's your proposal?

This makes the news mainly because of the novelty. Not many "big batteries" out there, and even fewer such fires. So when one happens it's news. The second "lesser" reason is because it could be a sign of things to come. We're far more familiar with the pitfalls of tech we've been developing for a century. With batteries I'm sure we're still discovering operational aspects that were not considered or not given enough attention.

[0] https://hn.algolia.com/?q=battery+australia

Its not just the coal generator accidents but the weirdly long underground fires that rarely get a mention. Here's one article I found of a fire underneath some suburban houses: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-26/underground-fire-in-c... It casually mentions a decades-long struggle a primary school has had with an underground fire. Obviously not a very big deal for some folks.

I haven't read the actual study, but this write-up helped me understand the climate change denial phenomenon more clearly. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-apes/202012/...

> weirdly long underground fires

That is not so unusual for underground coal fires. They can be all but impossible to put out. It has been a phenomenon basically forever [0]. I assume a lot of the modern ones are linked to mining activity, but they do turn up naturally from time to time.

I would advise people not to build on top of a known coal seam fire.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal-seam_fire

I don't think there is a climate change denial phenomenon.

There is a fossil fuel shutdown denial phenomenon. Companies want to keep making profits and consumers want cheap energy. It's not very surprising.

Well this is bigger news, a giant battery from a well known company failed catastrophically within 24 hours; versus a plant running since 2001*(edit, wrong generator)

I personally have no idea the numbers, but i'd argue that lithium batteries have alot more explosive potential than your average powerstation fire...curious if anyone can compare energy density here

The bad part isn't just energy density, but that lithium fires are self oxidizing, so you can't smother them. Your only method of attack is to get temperature down.

Also, this type of smoke is awful. Anyone living in San Diego East of the 5 last year can probably remember how bad the Navy ship fire was compared to normal forest fire smoke.

I think these are lithium ion batteries not lithium batteries so you should be able to just use water to smother them.

Lithium ion packs have hardly any lithium metal, if i remember right it’s lithium salt?

Re: downvotes, some more info:

> How to extinguish a lithium-ion battery fire

> Let’s cut right to the chase. Despite their name, lithium-ion batteries used in consumer products do not contain any actual lithium metal. Therefore, a Class D fire extinguisher is not to be used to fight a lithium-ion battery fire. Class D fire extinguishers, which contain dry powder, are intended for combustible metal fires only. Since lithium-ion batteries aren’t made with metallic lithium, a Class D dry powder extinguisher would not be effective.

> So, what kind of fire extinguisher should you use in this scenario? Lithium-ion batteries are considered a Class B fire, so a standard ABC or BC dry chemical fire extinguisher should be used. Class B is the classification given to flammable liquids. Lithium-ion batteries contain liquid electrolytes that provide a conductive pathway, so the batteries receive a B fire classification.

>> https://resources.impactfireservices.com/how-do-you-put-out-...

>>This makes LiCoO2 batteries susceptible to thermal runaway in cases of abuse such as high temperature operation (>130 °C) or overcharging. At elevated temperatures, LiCoO 2 decomposition generates oxygen, which then reacts with the organic electrolyte of the cell. This is a safety concern due to the magnitude of this highly exothermic reaction, which can spread to adjacent cells or ignite nearby combustible material. In general, this is seen for many lithium ion battery cathodes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_cobalt_oxide

> failed catastrophically within 24 hours

Bathtub curve, anyone?

The fossil fuel industry has an inherent fire risk. In the UK we had https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-34919... in 2005.

Yes, what about whataboutism?