The RWTH Aachen study pro­ves the fire safety of bat­tery sto­rage sys­tems

Back­ground and metho­do­logy

The study is based on all publicly available reports of fires in Ger­many in 2022 and 2023. Its aim was to coll­ect and com­pre­hen­si­vely ana­lyse relia­ble sta­tis­ti­cal data. The study thus clo­ses a pre­viously exis­ting gap in the data available for Ger­many.

Results of the study

The issue of fire safety in bat­tery sto­rage sys­tems con­ti­nues to be affec­ted by mis­in­for­ma­tion and fal­se­hoods. The study pro­vi­des the first sci­en­ti­fi­cally foun­ded insights into the risks of bat­tery sto­rage sys­tems and deli­vers the fol­lo­wing key mes­sa­ges:

• Extre­mely low pro­ba­bi­lity of fire: at 0.005% per year, the pro­ba­bi­lity of a fire cau­sed by bat­tery sto­rage is lower than for many other house­hold appli­ances such as tumble dry­ers (0.0037%) or ref­ri­ge­ra­tors (0.0012%).
• Safe ope­ra­tion: Cer­ti­fied bat­tery sto­rage sys­tems meet all appli­ca­ble stan­dards and do not increase the risk of fire in house­holds.
• Role in the energy tran­si­tion: The results prove that bat­tery sto­rage sys­tems are an indis­pensable and safe ele­ment for the expan­sion of rene­wa­ble ener­gies.

Signi­fi­cance for the energy sto­rage indus­try

The RWTH study is a mile­stone for the indus­try in a num­ber of ways:

• Boos­ting trust: the ana­ly­sis dis­pels pre­ju­di­ces and shows that bat­tery sto­rage is a safe tech­no­logy that actively con­tri­bu­tes to the energy tran­si­tion.
• Fact-based dis­cus­sion: The study pro­vi­des a solid foun­da­tion for poli­ti­cal and public deba­tes on the pro­mo­tion of energy sto­rage sys­tems.
• Growth impulse: With the glo­bal tar­get of tri­pling the use of rene­wa­ble ener­gies by 2030 and the annual growth rate of 25% in sto­rage capa­ci­ties, the energy sto­rage indus­try will con­ti­nue to play a key role in the energy tran­si­tion.