Tesla just finished building the largest grid storage facility, and it took only three months. This battery grid storage facility has 16,000 lithium ion cells and a capacity of 210 kilowatt-hours within each ‘Powerpack’. This means that the facility’s installed grid storage is 15% of the whole world’s.
What was the reason behind this facility? There was an ecological disaster in Southern California Edison due to the natural gas firing up the peaker plant. According to Bloomberg, the disaster caused the release of the toxic gas, methane. The peaker plants have a vital role in daily life as they meet the high demands of electricity in the afternoon and evening. Now that this source was gone, Tesla came to the stage to solve the problem.
The facility will feed on batteries that will store energy on excess electricity generation from wind and solar power. After storing the energy, the batteries will discharge during the high demand periods of the day. So, this cycle will go on, replacing the peaker plant that contributed to the greenhouse gas emission.
There are many benefits of the new facility that feeds on renewable energy. It is much smaller and easier to expand if needed. Also, since California has a strict regulation on greenhouse gas emission standards, the facility is much easier to build than a peaker plant. The facility will provide energy to 15,000 homes for four hours.
The construction of this facility was not easy as it was needed to be done in a very short time. According to JB Straubel, Tesla’s Chief Technology Officer, many teams had to work 24 hours a day, living in the construction area.
Tesla’s facility is a new phase starter in massive energy storage. Not only it is of renewable energy, it also doesn’t take up any new land that can be used for other purposes. This facility can definitely inspire people for new electricity generation and storage systems with renewable energy.
[via cleantechnica]
