Hi, what are you looking for?
Floating “Artificial Leaves” Produce Clean Fuel
Solar & Storage Industry Charts Course For U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance Thanks To Inflation Reduction Act
Renewables to Equal 22% of U.S. Electricity Generation in 2022 — U.S. EIA Forecast
Peaking — A Theory of Rapid Transition
Virginia Offshore Wind Project Could Power 600,000 Homes, Create Over 1,000 Jobs
How Wind Energy Can Help Us Breathe Easier
U.S. Department Of Energy Finds Record Production & Job Growth In U.S. Wind Power Sector
Renewables to Equal 22% of U.S. Electricity Generation in 2022 — U.S. EIA Forecast
Peaking — A Theory of Rapid Transition
Decarbonizing Data Centers — It’s Fun!
Most Renewables Now Cheaper Than Cheapest Coal
Kenya Elections: Electric Mobility, Utility Scale Battery Storage, Energy Efficiency & Green Hydrogen Feature Prominently
More Electricity from Wind & Solar than Nuclear for 1st Time in USA
Funding Notice: Community Geothermal Heating & Cooling Design & Deployment
3 Barriers to Large-Scale Energy Storage Deployment
Cummins Calls Dibs On New Long Duration Energy Storage Iron Salt Formula
The Faraday Institution & NREL Sign MOU In Support of US & UK Joint Battery Research
A 100 Percent Renewable Electricity Calculator for the United States
New Tesla LFP Megapack Is Big — Really Big! (With Video)
Comparing The US & China On Climate, Economy, & Other Outcomes Should Be Deeply Humbling For America
San Diego Electric School Bus Puts Electricity Into The Grid
Can Virtual Power Plants Provide Revenue for Householders?
ERCOT & Tesla: How Virtual Power Plants Can Help Texas Electricity Grid & Save Lives
Energy Security at the Edge of the Grid
New Jersey is Ready for 100% Clean Electricity & Buildings
A Guide To Fuel Efficient Driving — Part Three (2022 Update)
New Heat Pumps For Old Apartments
Our Water Heaters Could Help Save the Wilderness
Heat Pumps Proved Themselves During A Harsh Maine Winter
EV Owners Enjoy Cost Savings, Reliability, Range, & More — Maine Survey
Tesla Production Update: 1 Million from Giga Shanghai, 3 Million Total, Australia & New Zealand Get Model Y Deliveries
Ford CEO Jim Farley Calls Out Tesla CEO During F-150 Lightning Presentation
How Tesla Reworked its Software to Survive the Semiconductor Chip Shortage
New Jersey is Ready for 100% Clean Electricity & Buildings
This Go-Anywhere, Eye-Catching E-Bike Is A Honey
Ford F-150 Lightning — CleanTechnica Review
Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Maintenance Cost Update at 3 Years & 27,000 Miles
75,000 Miles With My Tesla Model 3: Maintenance Costs, FSD (Beta), Hauling, Etc.
Putting The EcoFlow DELTA Pro Power Station To A Hard Test
22% Of New Car Sales Now Electric In The Netherlands!
Germany’s EV Share Cold Comfort Against 34% Shortfall In Overall Auto Market
UK Plugin EV Share Shrinks In July, BEVs Still Growing
French New Auto Sales Crash 37%, BEVs Still Growing
Norway’s Plugin Market Share Drops, BEVs Still Growing
This Go-Anywhere, Eye-Catching E-Bike Is A Honey
Ford F-150 Lightning — CleanTechnica Review
Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Maintenance Cost Update at 3 Years & 27,000 Miles
75,000 Miles With My Tesla Model 3: Maintenance Costs, FSD (Beta), Hauling, Etc.
Putting The EcoFlow DELTA Pro Power Station To A Hard Test
Ford F-150 Lightning — CleanTechnica Review
Tesla Q4 Shareholder Conference Call — Watch & Listen Here
Volkswagen Group — In-Depth Conference Call Highlights Company’s Focus On Transition
Bill McKibben On Unions, Tesla, & Elon Musk — CleanTechnica Interview
How To Watch & Listen To Tesla Q3 Earnings Call — Most Useful Livestream
A recent Facebook share by a frenemy of mine inspired me to look more closely at electric vehicle fires. Here is the post:
“So if one is involved in a crash, and people are trapped inside, the fire brigade has to isolate the battery before they cut into the car… So the problem with crashing any EV is that if you are trapped, you’re dead, as it is impossible to remove victims. Also can’t put a battery fire out. Water makes lithium burn. They forgot to tell you this part!”
Facebook later put a warning on the post with a fact check: “Lithium battery fires can be put out with water.”
Like all FUD (misinformation designed to cause Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt), there is likely to be some truth camouflaging the fear mongering, the doubt, and the falsehoods. To be sure of my stance, I then wrote to the New South Wales and Victorian fire departments. Fire Rescue Victoria responded:
“All FRV firefighters are provided with training and equipment to ensure they are prepared to respond to any emergency incident they may be faced with. This includes incidents involving lithium ion batteries.
“Furthermore, FRV continues to provide specific training and relevant doctrine to ensure firefighters understand specific issues pertaining to Electric Vehicles.
“While FRV’s primary focus is to serve and protect communities across Melbourne and Victoria’s major regional centres and FRV is not the regulatory body for lithium ion batteries, we do play a role in advocating for improved safety outcomes for communities and will continue to do so.”
I also reached out to a family member who has worked as a paramedic and is now a fireman. He tells me:
“We have been doing a fair bit of Road Crash Rescue training with some EV’s as they have some different structural components.
“Fire fighting with these vehicles is a little different as we don’t get a lot of exposure to the situation. Our current practice is to constantly flood the vehicle with water; we also do have foam options. We don’t have the demand just as yet as they do in Europe to have specific firefighting tools such as foam tanks which they soak the vehicle in for up to 24 hours.
“If we need to use cutters and spreaders on the vehicle we would just need to aware what we are bracing or stabilising off.”
So, in Australia, and I would assume in other parts of the world, first responders are well equipped to handle an electric vehicle crashes that involve a fire. They can also hose down the FUD.
We’ve also written several times before that the chance of a fire in a gas-powered car is much higher than a chance of a fire in an EV. For more on that, see “A Tesla Caught Fire, And A Dwarf Hit A Game-Winning Buzzer Beater” and “Ignore The Hype: Spontaneous Tesla Fires Are Incredibly Rare.”
David Waterworth is a retired teacher who divides his time between looking after his grandchildren and trying to make sure they have a planet to live on. He is long on Tesla [NASDAQ:TSLA].
#1 most loved electric vehicle, solar energy, and battery news & analysis site in the world. Support our work today!
Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.
Both Tesla and its vibrant CEO Elon Musk have posted a few production updates on Twitter in the last few days. Interesting numbers have...
What do you do when you want to buy an electric car and you don’t trust this newfangled internet thingy? You go to your...
As we move towards a circular economy, we need to bear in mind the huge job of cleaning up after ourselves and our ancestors....
The wind farm road block is gone. Now it’s full steam ahead for wind power in Australia, and wind is blowing away Australian records....
Copyright © 2021 CleanTechnica. The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by and do not necessarily represent the views of CleanTechnica, its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.