Is lithium battery to blame again? A major test is approaching for energy storage...

On October 18th, Air China flight CA139 from Hangzhou to Incheon experienced a sudden incident at high altitude: a fire erupted in the overhead bin.

According to an official Air China announcement, the fire was caused by a lithium battery spontaneously combusting in a passenger's carry-on luggage stored in the overhead bin. Fortunately, the crew responded quickly and handled the emergency properly, allowing the aircraft to safely land at Shanghai Pudong Airport with no injuries on board.

Although this "in-flight fire" was promptly extinguished, it serves as a wake-up call:

This was not just an accident; it also raises a real-life question about the safety of lithium batteries. As energy storage, electric vehicles, and mobile devices become ubiquitous in our lives, are we truly prepared to face the safety risks of the lithium battery era?

These seemingly "low-probability" events actually harbor the same hidden danger: thermal runaway of lithium batteries.

Lithium batteries can undergo a chain reaction of exothermic reactions when subjected to internal short circuits, overcharging, pressure, or high temperatures. Temperatures can rapidly soar to hundreds of degrees Celsius, causing electrolyte evaporation and gas expansion, ultimately leading to fires or even explosions.

In the enclosed cabin of an aircraft at an altitude of 10,000 meters, the consequences of a fire would be disastrous.

In fact, civil aviation authorities have long been aware of the severity of the risk.

In the first half of this year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued several notices, including "Notice on Submitting Requests for the Purchase of Aviation Transport Protective Equipment" (Administrative Bureau Notice [2025] No. 712) and "Notice on Implementing the Provision of Aviation Transport Protective Equipment" (Administrative Bureau Notice [2025] No. 961), requiring civil aviation crew members to equip themselves with aviation transport protective equipment to ensure air transport safety. In June, the Civil Aviation Administration of China went a step further and issued the "Guidelines for Emergency Response to Lithium Batteries on Board (MD-TR-2025-01)", which directly addressed the industry pain points of "lithium battery safety".

In fact, lithium battery safety issues exist not only in the air transport sector; the energy storage industry also faces severe challenges.

The energy storage industry has been booming over the past few years, but frequent accidents have cast a shadow over this energy revolution. According to incomplete statistics, dozens of energy storage fires occurred globally in the first half of 2025 alone, almost all of which occurred in major energy storage countries such as the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

In January, a fire broke out at the first phase of the world's largest energy storage power station (300MW/1200MWh), operated by Vistra Energy in Moss Landing, California. The cause was thermal runaway of LG Energy Cell's NMC lithium-ion batteries, which led to an uncontrolled fire. In February, residual batteries reignited, destroying 70% of the facility.

In March, a fire broke out at a photovoltaic energy storage facility in Gangjin County, South Jeolla Province, South Korea, destroying 510 square meters of storage cabins and 3,852 battery modules, resulting in property losses totaling 10 billion won (approximately 49.7 million RMB). Preliminary investigations indicate that the fire was caused by battery overheating, possibly related to thermal runaway of the ternary lithium-ion battery cells.

In September of this year, a fire broke out at the Townsite photovoltaic energy storage power station in Boulder, Colorado, USA. The project reportedly boasts a 90MW/360MWh energy storage capacity. The investigation revealed that the cause of the fire was a coolant leak, leading to thermal runaway of the battery cells. During post-accident inspections, the investigation team discovered visible burn marks between several undamaged battery packs, posing a potential cascading risk for large-scale energy storage units.

With the increasing frequency of energy storage power station dispatch and the increasing intensity of system operations, safety is becoming a top concern for the industry. This "fire line anxiety" is forcing the entire industry chain to rethink: How can the energy storage industry move from "assembling equipment" to "competing for safety"?

China has clearly long been aware of this potential risk and has taken frequent actions in recent years to address safety shortcomings.

The "Design Standard for Combined Wind, Solar, and Storage Power Stations" (GB/T51437-2021) will be implemented starting December 1, 2021, providing specifications for the design of combined wind, solar, and storage power stations.

In August of this year, China's first mandatory national standard for lithium battery safety for energy storage, GB 44240-2024 "Safety Requirements for Lithium-ion Batteries and Battery Packs for Electric Energy Storage Systems," officially came into effect.

The new national standard sets strict safety thresholds for lithium batteries throughout their life cycle, adding 23 new extreme tests, including cell-level vibration, shallow puncture, and forced discharge, with extremely stringent requirements. The overcharge test requires charging energy exceeding the current standard, with the current increased by approximately 30%. The battery cell must not catch fire or explode within one hour after thermal runaway is triggered. The thermal runaway propagation test requires triggering the center cell with a laser or heat source, and observing for 24 hours for the absence of external flames.

This signifies that China's energy storage industry has transitioned from rapid development to stable growth. Only by crossing this critical safety threshold can energy storage truly become the most reliable force in the new energy system.

Over the past few years, the energy storage industry has seen rapid growth.

Whether it's distributed storage for photovoltaic power plants or behind-the-meter industrial and commercial energy storage, everyone is competing in speed, cost, and scale. Whoever has the cheapest system and the fastest project launch will capture the market.

At the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Energy Storage Conference on September 17th, Zeng Yuqun, Chairman of leading lithium battery company Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd., sounded a wake-up call for the entire industry. He pointed out, "Over the past three years, the average price of energy storage systems has fallen by approximately 80%. The winning bid for a recent centralized procurement project was even less than 0.4 yuan/Wh, significantly deviating from cost." "Excessively low prices inevitably lead to reduced materials and specifications, creating quality and safety risks for the industry."

Frequent safety accidents also confirm this point.

As news of "energy storage system fires" repeatedly trended, the entire industry realized that "cheapness" was no longer a competitive advantage; "safety" was the new threshold. Energy storage battery companies are accelerating the development of higher-safety technologies such as lithium iron phosphate, sodium ion, and solid-state batteries. Energy storage system integrators are beginning to incorporate digital protection measures such as intelligent temperature control, AI-powered early warning systems, and module-level monitoring. Power station operations and maintenance are also shifting from "regular inspections" to "intelligent diagnosis + cloud monitoring."

In other words, the competitive logic of the energy storage industry is being fundamentally rewritten.

From a capital perspective, this change is also accelerating. Since 2025, the financing trend in the energy storage industry has shifted significantly—capital no longer blindly pursues "installed capacity scale" but instead focuses on companies with core safety technologies, system integration capabilities, and digital management capabilities.

Energy storage systems that offer safety, stability, and scalability are reaping greater policy dividends and market pricing power.

In the future, competition in the energy storage industry will no longer be about who is the first to launch a project, but rather who can strike the optimal balance between safety and efficiency.

From spontaneous combustion of lithium batteries in engine rooms to fires in energy storage power plants, each incident serves as a reminder to the entire industry: safety is never a negotiable cost; it is the lifeline that sustains industry development. Today's energy storage is no longer simply an "electricity transfer station." With the full implementation of new national standards and the continuous improvement of intelligent safety systems, the energy storage industry landscape will be redefined: it will no longer be a mere "supporting role" alongside photovoltaic and wind power, but a strategic fulcrum in the energy transition.

But only when safety becomes the bottom line will energy storage have a future.