Fireaway Unveils New System to Combat Rising Clean Energy Fire Risks

MINNETONKA, MN – April 28, 2026 – As the global transition to clean energy accelerates, so do concerns over the unique and significant fire risks associated with its infrastructure. Addressing this challenge, Fireaway Inc. today announced the launch of UltraSense™, an environmental sensing platform designed to create a multi-layered fire protection strategy for battery energy storage systems (BESS), solar farms, and wind turbines.

The new platform is designed to work in tandem with the company's established Stat-X® condensed aerosol suppression system, creating a comprehensive 'Prevent • Detect • Suppress' approach. The move signals a broader industry shift from purely reactive fire suppression to a more proactive, data-driven strategy aimed at mitigating incidents before they become catastrophic.

The Growing Pains of Green Energy

The push for a carbon-neutral future has led to an explosion in clean energy installations, but this rapid growth has exposed critical safety vulnerabilities. While fire incidents are statistically rare, their consequences can be devastating, leading to multi-million dollar losses, prolonged downtime, and significant environmental hazards.

Battery Energy Storage Systems are particularly susceptible. The heart of the risk lies in thermal runaway, an uncontrollable, self-accelerating chain reaction within a lithium-ion battery cell. Triggers can range from manufacturing defects to electrical faults or physical damage. Once initiated, thermal runaway can cause the battery to release highly flammable and toxic gases—including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and hydrofluoric acid—which can lead to violent fires and explosions. Recent events, such as the persistent flare-ups at the Gateway Energy Storage Facility in San Diego and evacuations near the Moss Landing fire in California, highlight the difficulty in controlling these incidents. Industry analysis suggests that while failure rates per deployed unit have decreased due to better designs, the sheer number of new installations keeps the risk prominent, with many incidents occurring during the initial commissioning and integration phases.

Wind and solar installations face their own distinct challenges. An estimated 90% of wind turbine fires originate in the nacelle, a confined space packed with flammable hydraulic fluids, lubricants, and high-voltage electrical equipment. Due to their height and often remote locations, firefighting is nearly impossible, leading to a total loss in most cases. Similarly, fires at solar farms, often caused by faulty inverters, connectors, and DC isolators, can spread rapidly, destroying valuable equipment and threatening surrounding areas.

A Paradigm Shift from Reaction to Prevention

Fireaway's new integrated system aims to confront these challenges by shifting the focus from simply extinguishing flames to preventing them from ever starting. The UltraSense™ platform forms the foundation of this proactive strategy.

Unlike traditional fire protection that waits for smoke or heat, UltraSense™ acts as a continuous watchdog, monitoring a suite of environmental conditions that are often precursors to a fire. The system tracks temperature, humidity shifts, air quality changes, and electrical irregularities. The goal is to provide operators with early warnings of abnormal conditions, allowing them to intervene and address risks before they escalate into an ignition event.

This system enhances the detection layer by identifying specific early warning indicators unique to clean energy applications. For BESS facilities, this includes detecting the specific gases released during the initial stages of battery cell failure, long before thermal runaway begins. By identifying these off-gases, abnormal heat signatures, or electrical anomalies, the platform can trigger alerts through building management or SCADA systems, providing critical response time.

Should prevention and early detection fail, the final layer of protection is the Stat-X® condensed aerosol suppression system. When activated, the self-contained units flood an enclosed space—such as a BESS container, solar inverter cabinet, or wind turbine nacelle—with a fine, electrically non-conductive aerosol that chemically interrupts the fire's chain reaction. The agent requires no pressurized cylinders or complex piping and has zero ozone depletion or global warming potential, aligning with the environmental goals of the industry it protects.

"Fire protection in clean energy environments requires more than a single solution, it demands a coordinated, layered strategy," said Jim Dickinson, EVP of Global Sales at Fireaway, in the company's announcement. "With UltraSense and Stat-X, we're delivering a fully integrated solution that addresses fire risk at every stage, from early condition monitoring to final suppression."

Navigating a Complex Safety Landscape

The introduction of integrated systems like this comes as the industry grapples with a complex web of evolving safety standards. Regulators and standards organizations are racing to keep pace with the technology. For BESS installations, standards like NFPA 855 and UL 9540 have become the guiding documents for ensuring safety, mandating specific requirements for fire suppression, explosion control, and thermal runaway mitigation.

These standards increasingly emphasize performance-based designs, opening the door for innovative solutions that can prove their effectiveness. While traditional water-based sprinkler systems are often mandated for their cooling capabilities, experts acknowledge their limitations in energized electrical environments and the potential for extensive water damage. This has created a market for alternative and complementary technologies, including clean agents, high-pressure water mist, and condensed aerosol systems.

Fireaway operates in a competitive field alongside major industrial safety providers like Fike, Kidde, and Siemens, as well as specialized firms. However, its focus on a fully integrated 'Prevent • Detect • Suppress' package specifically tailored for clean energy applications aims to set it apart. The ability of UltraSense™ to detect off-gassing directly addresses a key recommendation from fire safety engineers for mitigating BESS risks at the earliest possible stage.

The High Cost of Failure

The economic case for investing in advanced fire protection is compelling. The direct cost of a fire includes not only the replacement of multi-million dollar assets but also extensive revenue loss from downtime, which can last for months or even years. The indirect costs are equally staggering, encompassing complex incident investigations, expensive environmental remediation to clean up toxic residue, and soaring insurance premiums.

According to fire safety consultants, there is a strong consensus that a multi-layered, defense-in-depth strategy is the only responsible approach for these high-value, high-risk assets. Proactively managing risk is no longer just about safety; it is about protecting significant investments, maintaining public trust, and ensuring the long-term financial viability of the green energy transition. By providing the tools to see trouble coming, the industry is betting that it can secure its own sustainable future.