Tesla's Powerwalls are starting to find their way into homes, and one of their main selling points is the way they can keep a home up and running during a blackout. Now the company has ambitious plans to extend that functionality to an entire Australian state by building the world's biggest battery storage system to keep homes powered come hell(ish summers) or high water.
In September last year, a massive storm ravaged South Australia, disrupting the state's electricity grid and leaving some 1.7 million people without power. Another storm caused more blackouts in December, while a heatwave knocked it out yet again in February this year. After that many ups and downs, in March the state government announced plans to "take charge of the state's energy future", and building a large battery storage system was a key part of that idea.
Now Tesla has been awarded the contract for this key component, which will use a scaled up version of the company's commercial Powerpack energy storage system. In fact, it'll be the largest lithium-ion battery storage facility in the world, boasting a capacity of 129 MWh and an output of up to 100 MW.
The Powerpack system will be hooked up to the Hornsdale Wind Farm under construction near Jamestown , storing energy for on-demand delivery to some 30,000 homes. The hopes are that the system will help alleviate power shortages and make the grid better able to handle on-peak demands.
Elon Musk himself bragged that the system would be up and running within 100 days or it's free, and Tesla is aiming to make good on that promise, setting the project's completion date for December.
Source: Tesla
Great system though, the sooner we all get these the better. We have a lot of wind farms here in the UK and wold benefit greatly from this.
Decentralization is far more appropriate- otherwise there is still a significant "single point of failure"- the very thing of which South Australia was at risk, and will continue to be.
JohnnyWhite - As a big fan of all things space, Hell No! I want him to build that massive spaceship, it's 2017...how long must we wait before were a space fairing civilization. Come on Musk, Make it so.
A bit selective in your reasoning and comparisons? SA power is only marginally more expensive than the other states hooked up to the national grid (which your WA comparison is not). Why does Canberra which has a greater share of renewables have more stable power? No mention of the joys of 20+ years of privatisation and the rort that went on with the industry forcing price rises due to gold plating parts of the network? The national grid has always been about ensuring supply in Sydney and Melbourne first. Adelaide sitting at the tail end of the network was never a priority and will always be the first sacrifice when troubles arise.
Good on them for standing up for themselves, noone else was going to do it.