News
7 September, 2026
Battery fire highlights danger says solar farm opponents
Wind farm opponents say a fire in a community battery in Goulburn last week highlights the danger of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in renewable energy projects.
Wind farm opponents say a fire in a community battery in Goulburn last week highlights the danger of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in renewable energy projects.
The community battery on the corner of Gibson and Geoghegan Streets caught fire at approximately 2.40pm last Wednesday.
Nearby residents were told to stay indoors and keep windows and doors closed as smoke and fumes filled the air.
A 200-metre exclusion zone was put in place and police closed off the area.
Four Fire and Rescue NSW units and a NSW Rural Fire Brigade unit extinguished the blaze.
Fire and Rescue NSW personnel remained on the scene overnight to ensure the fire did not re-ignite.
A spokesperson for the ‘Save Gundary Plains – STOP the Solar Farm’ action group said the community battery was just 192kw but the one planned for the proposed Gundary Solar Farm would be 320,000kw and would be located “in the middle of 100 families”.
The spokesperson said RFS personnel were not trained in HAZMAT fires and questioned who would be available to fight a battery fire at Gundary if it broke out.
The toxic gases and particulate matter from a fire at Gundary would be “horrendous” and would contaminate nearby houses, land and the tank water on which families depend, the spokesperson said.
The proposed Gundary project southeast of Goulburn is currently being assessed as a State Significant Development.
According to the applicant – Lightsource bp – the project represents a “significant investment in the region’s renewable energy future, bringing local economic opportunities and contributing to Australia’s transition to low-carbon energy”.
In its last community update, it said changes had been made to emergency access arrangements as a result of community feedback and there has been “on-going engagement with the Rural Fire Service to finalise the site’s Emergency Response Plan”.
However the risk of fire is a reality.
Gexcon - a global leader in process safety and risk management - says BESS deployments are increasing rapidly, often in close proximity to people, infrastructure and critical assets.
It says high-profile events have shown that thermal runaway events (fires) can escalate quickly if the consequences are not properly understood.
Firetrace International – a world leader in the manufacture of fire suppression systems – has found that the solar industry is potentially underestimating the risk of fire at solar farms, partly due to a shortage of data on solar farm fires.
It has also found that fires at solar farms have been under-reported.
“To be clear, fire risk is present across all utility scale, high voltage, renewable energy from wind to solar to battery storage systems,” a FireTrace International spokesperson said.
“Fire risks cannot be totally engineered out.”
Those fires have the potential to destroy entire solar farms but also to endanger surrounding communities, the spokesperson said.
As reported by The Southern Wire last week, the company behind the proposed Coppabella Wind Farm near Yass has received modified approval for a BESS with individual units to be located at 71 per cent (or 53) of the project’s windfarms.
The BESS units will be co-located on turbine hardstands.
The proposed Bendenine Wind Farm near Yass is also expected to include a BESS.
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