Tesla (TSLA) will build a giant battery system in Australia . The battery capacity will be 2 times more than the previous one.
Thanks to the winning tender, Tesla will build a 300 MW / 450 MWh battery system in Australia. Although it was originally planned that the capacity will be 600 MW, and the contract will cost $ 300 million, the French company Neoen , a manufacturer of renewable energy sources, will be engaged in construction . Tesla will partner with the project.
The project, in which Noeon will use Tesla Megapacks, will go into operation in November 2021. The battery will be erected near Geelong and deployed within the Australian state of Victoria. The facility will have enough energy to power 500,000 homes for an hour.
With aging Australian coal-fired power plants becoming less reliable, the Australian state of Victoria relies more on wind and solar power. The authorities plan to switch to 40% renewable energy by 2025, and almost 90% by 2035.
The wholesale cost of electricity is expected to decline. As a result, residents of the state will pay less on their electricity bills.
During the construction of the battery, 80 jobs will be created; upon completion, 6 permanent jobs will remain.
Battery for a bet
The idea to build a giant battery in Australia was first born out of a Twitter chat 3 years ago. Elon Musk was asked if he was serious about helping Australia. To which the head of SpaceX replied in the affirmative. And he clarified that if the battery is not built in 100 days, it will donate it to the Australian authorities for free. The need for a battery was discovered following an Australian blackout following storms in the fall of 2016. At that moment, all of South Australia was left without electricity.
It took Tesla 60 days to build. The batteries are based on the same technologies as the company's cars: they are united by elements and design solutions. Samsung was the main contractor for the project.
Musk publicly congratulated employees on Twitter for the record deadline.
As a result, the world's largest lithium-ion battery was built in South Australia in 2017. The project was named "Big Tesla Battery". A full charge of the system provides electricity to about 30 thousand homes within an hour. Its main purpose is to stabilize and support existing energy sources.
Tesla's battery design capacity is 100 MW / 129 MWh, but has been expanded to 150 MW / 193.5 MWh. In essence, it provides the same services as gas-fired power plants, but with a zero carbon footprint, cheaper and faster.
It is estimated that Australia saved up to $ 40 million in its first year of operation.
Tesla recently announced its intention to build a huge power system in Hawaii that will generate 810 MWh of electricity. All these actions bring Elon Musk closer to the ambitious goal of ridding the world of the use of fossil fuels and moving to green energy.
