10 Jul Tesla to provide 100MW Giant Battery for South Australia
The South Australian State Government on Friday announced that Elon Musk’s Tesla has been tasked with providing the world’s largest lithium-ion battery. Tesla will partner with Neoen, a French Renewable Energy Company, to produce the 100MW battery. Mr Musk declared to keep to his promise over Twitter earlier in the year “If it’s not delivered in 100 days it will be free”. “That’s what we said publicly, that’s what we’re going to do,” Mr Musk said.
“It’s a fundamental efficiency improvement to the power grid, and it’s really quite necessary and quite obvious considering a renewable energy future,” Mr Musk said.
Under the historic agreement, SA Premier Jay Weatherill said the battery would “stabilise the South Australian network as well as putting downward pressure on prices”. “Battery storage is the future of our national energy market, and the eyes of the world will be following our leadership in this space,” he said.
Photo: ABC News
Tesla’s battery will be paired with Neoen’s 99-turbine wind farm at Hornsdale. The wind farm will charge the battery and discharge power when needed providing “dependable power” said Romain Desrousseaux, deputy chief executive of Neoen. Seventy percent of the battery’s generated power will be reserved for government use with the remainder released to the market.
Mr Weatherill said “this is an extraordinary offer” and would help South Australia become a world leader in battery storage arena. South Australia experienced numerous blackouts after a storm in September destroyed transmission lines, triggering backup systems. Ultimately, a key interstate connector with Victoria was then automatically tripped as a safety precaution.
Photo: ABC News
The lithium-iron battery is three times more powerful than any other system on Earth and with the time frame of 100 days proves “risky”.