Energy

World's biggest battery to grow 50 percent bigger next year

World's biggest battery to grow 50 percent bigger next year
The world's biggest battery is set to grow by 50 percent next year
The world's biggest battery is set to grow by 50 percent next year
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The world's biggest battery is set to grow by 50 percent next year
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The world's biggest battery is set to grow by 50 percent next year
The upgrade will allow the Hornsdale Power Reserve to keep the South Australian power grid stable
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The upgrade will allow the Hornsdale Power Reserve to keep the South Australian power grid stable

The biggest battery in the world is set to soon grow even bigger. The Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, built by Tesla and managed by renewable energy company Neoen, will be expanded by an extra 50 percent early next year.

The Hornsdale facility was built in 2017 to help alleviate the energy woes of the state of South Australia, which had seen rolling blackouts the previous summer. Tesla was awarded the contract, and Elon Musk vowed to build it within 100 days or it was free. True to his word, it was completed in November that year.

With a capacity of 129 MWh and an output of up to 100 MW, Hornsdale became the world’s largest lithium-ion storage battery, a title that it still holds two years later. And now, it looks set to strengthen its lead with a new expansion.

The upgrade will allow the Hornsdale Power Reserve to keep the South Australian power grid stable
The upgrade will allow the Hornsdale Power Reserve to keep the South Australian power grid stable

Tesla, Neoen and the South Australian government are looking to boost the battery by an extra 50 percent, adding 64.5 MWh of capacity and 50 MW of output. The upgrade will also add Tesla’s Virtual Machine Mode, which will allow the system to help maintain the power grid’s inertia, which provides stability in the face of fluctuating supply and demand.

The South Australian power grid requires 6,000 Megawatt-seconds (MWs) of inertia, and Neoen says that the upgraded Hornsdale facility could deliver up to half of that.

The upgrade is planned to be completed by mid-year 2020.

Sources: South Australia government, Neoen (PDF)

4 comments
4 comments
MerlinGuy
Probably the most impressive thing in the world concerning renewables.
edjudy
Please define "inertia" as used in this context. Does it mean the ability to deliver or absorb power nearly instantaneously to balance grid power production and grid power consumption?
Peter Randewijk
It is "virtual" inertia to provide instantaneous energy to the grid during faults, or loss of generation units in order to keep the power system frequency from falling to drastically similarly to a spinning traditional synchronous generator.
DickKennedy
Why are we not hearing from all of those NAYSAYERS who COMPLAINED that this project COULDN'T or WOULDN'T work or was a waste of Time and Money and the government was just throwing money at MUSK who was just a Dreamer 🍀🍀