Is Battery Storage Safe? What Illinois Landowners Should Know

When Illinois landowners first hear about leasing land for battery energy storage, one of the most common reactions is: "Is it safe?" It's a fair question. You're being asked to put industrial equipment on your property, and you want to know what the risks are.

The short answer: modern battery energy storage systems (BESS) are designed, tested, and regulated to extremely high safety standards. The technology has matured rapidly, and the risks are well understood and well managed. This article walks through each concern in detail so you can make an informed decision.

Fire risk: what the data actually shows

Fire is the concern that comes up most often, and it's understandable — you may have seen headlines about battery fires, including the Vistra Moss Landing fire in January 2024. That incident was serious: the fire burned for days at a facility in Monterey County, California, and released heavy metals into the surrounding area. We're not going to pretend it didn't happen or minimize it.

But here's what's important to understand: the Moss Landing facility used NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) chemistry batteries — an older generation of lithium-ion technology that is more energy-dense but also more prone to thermal runaway. When NMC batteries fail, the reaction is hotter, harder to control, and produces more toxic byproducts.

Modern battery storage projects — including all projects our development partner is building in Illinois — use LFP (lithium iron phosphate) chemistry. LFP is a fundamentally different chemistry with a much stronger safety profile:

• Far higher thermal stability: LFP cells don't undergo thermal runaway until approximately 270°C (518°F), compared to 150-200°C for NMC. This is a massive margin of safety.
• No cobalt or nickel: LFP contains no toxic heavy metals. Even in a worst-case fire scenario, LFP doesn't release the heavy metal particulates that made Moss Landing so damaging.
• Lower energy density = slower failure: If something does go wrong, LFP cells release less energy, giving suppression systems more time to respond.

Moss Landing was a wake-up call for the industry, and it accelerated the shift from NMC to LFP. Today, the vast majority of new utility-scale battery projects in the United States use LFP chemistry.

Beyond chemistry, here's what makes modern utility-scale BESS installations safe:

• Thermal management systems: Every battery module includes active cooling (liquid or air) that keeps cells within a narrow temperature range. If temperatures rise, the system automatically reduces output or shuts down.
• Fire suppression: Modern BESS installations include dedicated fire detection and suppression systems — often clean-agent systems similar to what's used in data centers and server rooms.
• Physical separation: Battery modules are spaced apart in separate enclosures (typically modified shipping containers) so that a problem in one module cannot easily spread to another.
• Continuous monitoring: Every cell, module, and rack is monitored 24/7 for voltage, temperature, and state of charge. Anomalies trigger automatic responses before they become problems.

NFPA 855 and regulatory standards

The industry standard for battery safety is NFPA 855 (Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems), published by the National Fire Protection Association. This isn't optional — it's the regulatory baseline. NFPA 855 requires:

• Fire suppression systems designed specifically for lithium-ion battery installations
• Minimum setback distances between battery enclosures, buildings, and property lines
• Emergency response plans filed with local fire departments before construction begins
• Ventilation and deflagration controls to manage any off-gassing in an enclosure
• 24/7 remote monitoring with automatic shutdown capabilities

Additionally, battery systems undergo UL 9540A testing — a rigorous thermal runaway evaluation developed by Underwriters Laboratories. This test deliberately induces failure in individual cells to verify that the system can contain the event without propagation. Only systems that pass UL 9540A testing are deployed in modern projects.

Developers are also required to coordinate with local fire departments, provide site-specific emergency response plans, and in many cases fund fire department training for battery-specific incidents. This is a regulatory requirement, not a courtesy.

Hydrofluoric acid and chemical concerns

If you've researched battery safety online, you may have encountered concerns about hydrofluoric acid (HF) — a toxic gas that can be produced when lithium-ion battery electrolyte decomposes at high temperatures. This is a real concern, and we want to address it directly.

All lithium-ion batteries — LFP and NMC alike — contain fluorinated electrolyte solvents that can produce HF when exposed to extreme heat. However, the amount and severity varies significantly by chemistry:

• NMC batteries (like those at Moss Landing) burn hotter and longer, producing significantly more HF and other toxic fluorinated compounds during thermal runaway
• LFP batteries produce substantially less HF because they operate at lower temperatures during failure, the thermal events are shorter and less intense, and they are far less likely to enter thermal runaway in the first place

Modern BESS enclosures are also designed to mitigate this risk. Battery containers include gas detection sensors, ventilation controls, and suppression systems that activate before temperatures reach the point where significant HF is produced. The NFPA 855 standard specifically addresses deflagration and off-gas hazards, requiring enclosures to manage these scenarios.

Beyond HF, modern LFP grid-scale batteries:

• Do not contain cobalt, nickel, or other toxic heavy metals
• Are thermally stable — they resist thermal runaway far better than NMC or other lithium-ion chemistries
• Sit on contained concrete pads with no pathway for discharge into soil or groundwater during normal operation
• Are classified as non-hazardous waste at end of life

The installation sits on a concrete pad with containment, similar to a transformer station. Environmental impact assessments are part of the permitting process in every Illinois county.

Noise levels

Battery storage installations produce minimal noise. The primary sound sources are cooling fans and power conversion equipment (inverters). At the fence line of a typical installation, noise levels range from 45 to 55 decibels — comparable to a quiet office or a residential refrigerator running.

At 100 feet from the fence, noise typically drops below 40 decibels, which is roughly the ambient noise level of a rural area. By contrast, a grain dryer runs at 85-100 decibels, a tractor at 80-95 decibels, and even a combine at 85-90 decibels. Battery storage is dramatically quieter than standard farming equipment.

County zoning ordinances in Illinois typically include noise limits for utility installations, and battery projects are designed to comply with setback and decibel requirements.

EMF (electromagnetic fields)

Some landowners ask about electromagnetic fields from battery installations. The EMF from a battery storage system is comparable to common household appliances and well below any health-related thresholds established by the World Health Organization and IEEE standards.

At the fence line, EMF levels are similar to what you'd measure standing near a residential electrical panel. At the typical setback distance (50-100 feet from the property line), EMF levels are essentially indistinguishable from background.

How this compares to risks farmers already live with

We're not saying battery storage is risk-free — nothing is. But context matters. If you're a farmer in Illinois, you already live and work around infrastructure that carries real, well-documented risks. You manage those risks because you understand them and because the economic benefit is worth it.

Infrastructure	Common Risks	Annual Incidents (US)
Grain bins	Engulfment, dust explosions	~50 fatalities/year
Anhydrous ammonia tanks	Chemical burns, respiratory harm, toxic release	Hundreds of injuries/year
Diesel/fuel storage	Fire, soil contamination, groundwater pollution	Thousands of leaks/year
Electrical service panels	Shock, fire	~30,000 home fires/year
Propane tanks	Explosion, fire	~1,000 incidents/year
Battery storage (LFP BESS)	Thermal event (contained)	<10 significant events globally/year

Consider: anhydrous ammonia — a substance that can cause chemical burns and death from a single equipment failure — is stored on thousands of Illinois farms every spring. Grain bins kill more Americans each year than battery storage has in its entire history. Diesel tanks sit in barns and fields with minimal containment, creating soil and groundwater contamination risk that a battery installation on a sealed concrete pad simply doesn't have.

Battery storage is, statistically, one of the lowest-risk types of infrastructure you can have on your property. The safety engineering in modern LFP BESS installations — continuous monitoring, automatic suppression, NFPA 855 compliance, UL 9540A testing — is far more advanced than what protects a typical farm fuel tank, grain bin, or anhydrous ammonia setup.

Insurance and liability

The developer — not the landowner — is responsible for insuring the battery installation. Lease agreements include comprehensive insurance requirements covering property damage, environmental liability, and third-party claims. The developer also carries general liability insurance and provides certificates of insurance to the landowner.

Your existing farm insurance should not be affected by a battery storage installation on a leased portion of your property. However, we recommend discussing this with your insurance agent before signing a lease.

Emergency response planning

Developers are required to provide emergency response plans to local fire departments before construction begins. These plans include site access procedures, system shutdown protocols, hazardous material information, and contact numbers for the developer's 24/7 operations team.

Many developers also provide training to local fire departments at no cost, ensuring that first responders know exactly how to handle any situation that might arise.

Bottom line

We understand why safety is the first question — it should be. Incidents like Moss Landing deserve honest acknowledgment, not dismissal. But the critical context is that Moss Landing involved older NMC chemistry, and the industry has moved decisively toward LFP. Modern LFP battery installations comply with NFPA 855 standards, pass UL 9540A testing, include dedicated fire suppression systems, and are continuously monitored 24/7.

For Illinois landowners in eligible counties — Boone, Bureau, DeKalb, Grundy, Henry, Kankakee, Kendall, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Marshall, McLean, Ogle, Peoria, Stephenson, Whiteside, Winnebago, and Woodford — the safety profile of a modern LFP battery installation is comparable to or better than the grain bins, anhydrous ammonia tanks, and diesel storage you already live with.

If safety was your only concern holding you back, we hope this gives you enough information to evaluate the real risks clearly. Check if your property qualifies or estimate your potential earnings.