"The top line is that the expansion of gridscale batteries represents a major threat to urban areas because of the fire risk. Lithium-ion batteries are prone to so-called ‘thermal runaway’; the resulting fires are highly toxic and hard to extinguish. The published paper also refers to recent major battery fires in the US and Australia and the implications of similar conflagrations for conurbations in the UK. One example, the fire at Elon Musk’s ‘Big Battery’ in Australia, led to homes up to six miles away being locked down to protect residents from the fumes. Dr Fannon shows that a similar fire in the Chickerell installation could lead to locking down of Weymouth itself (with a population of 60,000 rising to more than 100,000 in summer) and even the outskirts of Dorchester if the wind is southerly, while one at a site proposed for the south bank of the Thames could shut down the port of Tilbury. This is an intolerable risk in a densely populated country such as ours."
