The test was carried out in Hebei province, China, at an open site designed for large-scale fire trials. It followed the latest international fire safety standards, including CSA/ANSI C800-2025, NFPA 855-2026, and UL 9540A (November 2025). Trina Storage went beyond standard requirements, reducing the gap between containers to just 10 centimetres to create a more demanding thermal scenario and assess safety margins at the system level.
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During the test, the initiation container was exposed to flames exceeding 1,300°C to simulate an extreme fire scenario. The container remained structurally intact without collapse. Cells in adjacent containers stayed well below critical safety limits, and no thermal propagation was observed: cell temperatures peaked at 43.9°C in back-to-back containers, 23.9°C in side-by-side containers, and 28.6°C in face-to-face containers. These values are far below the cell venting thresholds, surpassing UL 9540A acceptance criteria and outperforming typical industry benchmarks. The fire alarm in the initiation container remained operational until power loss, confirming the robustness of the communication system under extreme conditions.
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Post-test inspections found that the electrical cabinets in the initiation container were intact, with internal separation maintained by multi-layer isolation. Adjacent containers remained structurally sound and fully functional, and the fire protection systems in these containers maintained full availability. Module-level thermal management systems also remained operational, and cell charge and discharge performance was unaffected, according to Gabriele Buccini, Head of Trina Storage Europe. (hcn)
