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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/tesla-build-titanic-battery-facility
Tesla announced today that it will build the world's largest lithium-ion battery system to store electricity in Australia. The 100-megawatt installation—more than three times as powerful as the biggest existing battery system—will be paired with the Hornsdale Wind Farm near Jamestown, operated by the French renewable energy company Neoen, in a deal with the state of South Australia. The Tesla battery should smooth out the variability inherent in sustainable power generation schemes.
"Cost-effective storage of electrical energy is the only problem holding us back from getting all of our power from wind and solar," says Ian Lowe, an energy policy specialist at Griffith University in Nathan, Australia, near Brisbane. The Tesla system, he says, will "demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale storage." It might also win over skeptics who doubt that renewables can match the dependability of conventional fossil fuel and nuclear power plants, says Geoffrey James, a renewable energy engineer at University of Technology Sydney.
[...] The battery installation will be a key feature of the state's aggressive move toward reliably generating half of its electricity from renewables by 2025. That drive suffered an image problem last September and again in February, when power blackouts hobbled the state. Conservative politicians were quick to blame South Australia's shift away from fossil fuels. "It's very easy to use a blackout to attack renewable energy," James says. Investigations concluded that the failures were not due to the reliance on renewables but rather to the collapse of transmission towers in one case and unexpected power demands in another. In addition to helping match renewable energy generation and use, James says, the battery facility's "high power capacity will be available in quick bursts" to keep the electricity's frequency in the right range in the event of grid disruptions and demand surges.
Also at BusinessInsider, The Washington Post, and Tesla.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 10 2017, @05:35AM (14 children)
Not enough though: peak power consumption is around 3000MW [aer.gov.au].
Assuming peak demand, 50% coming from renewables and unfavourable renewables conditions, 900MWh will last less than 1h.
A pity the fed govt (liberal = conservative) decided to boycott SA's renewable plans. Australia is large, the probability of unfavourable conditions for renewable all across Australia is very small.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 10 2017, @05:37AM
Where the 900MWh popped from? TFA speaks about 100MWh.
Ok, you do the math.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday July 10 2017, @06:06AM (12 children)
Given that this is just for the Hornsdale Wind Farm [hornsdalewindfarm.com.au] which, I assume (since it only generates 329MW), is just a small part of South Australia's power generation infrastructure, a 129MW battery storage system would probably be quite useful for storing electricity not used during off-peak periods and then distributed during peak periods.
Or is it necessary for each and every power generation facility in a specific region (in this case, South Australia) to be able to meet peak power requirements for the entire region by itself?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 4, Informative) by choose another one on Monday July 10 2017, @09:18AM (6 children)
To be able to reliably provide base load power you need to be close to 24/7 (preferably with predictable down time windows), for each and every base load generation facility.
If the wind farm generates 329MW (not particularly large for a power station) and the battery stores 129MWh then the facility can manage less than half an hour without wind. That is kind of pathetic for the biggest battery in the world - it just shows how far we've got to go.
For old-tech comparison, Dinorwig pumped storage plant (in Wales / UK) stores 9GWh. Even that is nowhere near being able to meet peak-power requirements or even compensate for when the wind isn't blowing - it is "short term operational reserve" power, used for flattening the tops of demand peaks and providing time for the big gas plants to kick in.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday July 10 2017, @03:28PM (2 children)
And is well worth a visit. When there's a demand spike and they start emptying the reservoir, you really get a feel for how much power a gigawatt is!
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday July 10 2017, @05:28PM (1 child)
Does the UK still have the famous Kettle Peak and the end of EastEnders?
If yes, that's probably a reliable time to visit.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Tuesday July 11 2017, @05:03AM
With the growth in online and on-demand television, I doubt the Eastenders peak is as prominent any more. Plus, it's shown in the evening, after visiting hours. A better approach would be to visit during some live televised sporting event in the daytime (Wimbledon tennis finals, Six nations rugby, etc).
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday July 10 2017, @05:58PM (1 child)
To be able to reliably provide base load power you need to be close to 24/7 (preferably with predictable down time windows), for each and every base load generation facility.
Lucy for us there's these things called "wires." They have the amazing ability to connect various areas into a "grid," over a very large area. Wind tends to vary over large areas....
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Tuesday July 11 2017, @06:38PM
> Wind tends to vary over large areas....
Define "large".
Wind variation over areas the size of western europe (for example) is quite highly correlated, see e.g. http://euanmearns.com/wind-blowing-nowhere/ [euanmearns.com]
For larger areas you are looking not at a grid (actually even Europe is not one grid) but at separate grids with sparse interconnectors, which may also be subject to energy supply politics - ask Ukraine about the gas grid...
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday July 10 2017, @07:26PM
I understand the issues, I was responding to Colo's post [soylentnews.org] where he states that the battery system is wholly inadequate to address issues associated with the 3000MW peak load for all of South Australia.
And that would be true. However, given that the contract is for a battery system to store non-peak electricity for a single power generation facility that generates ~10% of total peak power requirements for the entire state, I found Colo's statement to be less than useful given the contract and the cicrumstances.
Having a storage system that can store a little less than half of the power generation capacity for that particular facility is, IMHO, a good start. Presumably, if this works well they will add more of these storage systems at other facilities (and perhaps even at this facility) in South Australia.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Monday July 10 2017, @09:34AM (4 children)
I never said that. And no, that super-battery is not to be used exclusively by Hornsdale
Here's the situation:
SA has a single interstate connection to the "national grid" (which is not that "national" as the name implies, see page 2 of this (PDF warning) [aemo.com.au]).
Most of the times, SA is an energy exporter - last year SA achieved 53% of its own consumption being generated from renewables [abc.net.au]. But sometimes it needs to import - in the few days every year when the wind doesn't blow (the neighbourhood with the Southern Ocean almost guarantees the coastal regions will be mostly windy).
When the falls, SA needs to import a lot through that single interstate connection. In the conditions the thermal powered stations (mainly gas) are private and sometimes play scarcity games [news.com.au] (link is to a NewsCorp/Murdoch owned newspaper, which admits):
This is why SA govt commissioned the battery and also plans to build a state owned gas power station [abc.net.au]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Troll) by bob_super on Monday July 10 2017, @05:36PM (3 children)
> This is why SA govt commissioned the battery and also plans to build a state owned gas power station [abc.net.au]
That sound terribly communist of them. What's next? Not selling public transportation to car and tire manufacturers? Not buying then bulldozing water supplies to towns before sending them trucks filled with $10 per liter water?
What kind of coercive governments keep getting in the way of my freedom to establish contracts?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 10 2017, @08:58PM (2 children)
A govt that protects its citizens from predatory pricing by acting as an operator on the market?
If the utility market is controlled by companies putting extreme greed above the duty to provide the utilities, why not?
You don't like the prices the govt has to offer you, feel free to contract your utilities with the other companies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday July 11 2017, @12:51AM (1 child)
I'm pretty sure I can find lots of examples of public utilities competing against private entities, where the lawsuits only stop when the right politician happens to properly defund or hamper the action of the public utility, following a balanced election in which nobody could notice completely unrelated excessive contributions by said competitors...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 11 2017, @02:34AM
On short term, lawsuits won't get them anywhere election-wise... the memory of what happened is too recent inside the electorate.
Besides, the Aussies are pretty used with public utilities, state owned (totally or in part) operating on the market. The most recent of it: NBNCo [wikipedia.org].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford