Tesla "big battery" in Australia is becoming a bigger nightmare for fossil fuel power generators
Tesla's "big battery" utility-scale Powerpack system at the Hornsdale Power Reserve [(HPR)] in South Australia has yielded more than doubled[sic] the savings to consumers in 2019 than the year prior as it dominates fossil fuel generators on quicker demand response for the grid.
Hornsdale Power Reserve saved consumers AUD116 million ($75.78 million) in 2019, a big jump from AUD40 million ($26.14 million) savings in 2018.
The Hornsdale Power Reserve, owned and operated by French renewable energy producer Neoen, is home to the largest lithium-ion battery energy storage system in the world with a 100 MW/129 MWh. Tesla Powerpack [that] has been playing a significant role in grid stability since its installation in 2017, a function previously dominated by fossil fuel generators that bring energy prices high during system faults [or] planned maintenance.
"Hornsdale has just been the best asset for the state, and for us as well, it's a real success story," head of development at Neoen Australia Garth Heron said in an interview with RenewEconomy. We have shown that these kinds of systems can work. It saves consumers a lot of money, and it's something we should be rolling out right across the market."
[...]The HPR also announced plans to expand its capacity by 50%, boosting it by 50MW/64.5MWh. The project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2020 and will provide stabilizing inertia services critical to the shift to renewable energy in the region, and help push Australia closer to its goal of being net 100% renewable by 2030.
Previously:
Elon Musk: I Can Fix South Australia Power Network in 100 Days or It's Free
Tesla to Build 129 Megawatt-Hours Battery Storage System in Australia
Tesla Delivers on 100 MW Australian Battery Promise
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Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of electric car giant Tesla, has thrown down a challenge to the South Australian and federal governments, saying he can solve the state's energy woes within 100 days – or he'll deliver the 100MW battery storage system for free.
On Thursday, Lyndon Rive, Tesla's vice-president for energy products, told the AFR the company could install the 100-300 megawatt hours of battery storage that would be required to prevent the power shortages that have been causing price spikes and blackouts in the state.
Thanks to stepped-up production out of Tesla's new Gigafactory in Nevada, he said it could be achieved within 100 days.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, the Australian co-founder of Silicon Valley startup Atlassian, on Friday tweeted Elon Musk, asking if Tesla was serious about being able to install the capacity.
Musk replied that the company could do it in 100 days of the contract being signed, or else provide it free, adding: "That serious enough for you?"
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.
Tesla has switched on "the world's largest battery" in South Australia:
The world's largest lithium ion battery has begun dispensing power into an electricity grid in South Australia. The 100-megawatt battery, built by Tesla, was officially activated on Friday. It had in fact provided some power since Thursday due to demand caused by local hot weather.
South Australia has been crippled by electricity problems in recent times. Tesla boss Elon Musk famously vowed to build the battery within 100 days - a promise that was fulfilled. "This is history in the making," South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said on Friday. The battery would prevent a repeat of a notorious incident last year where the entire state lost power, Mr Weatherill said.
Mr Musk has described it as three times more powerful than the world's next biggest battery.
The capacity is 129 MWh, and the battery can deliver 100 MW of power.
The record will not stand long. Hyundai is building a 50% more powerful battery system in Ulsan, South Korea.
Also at CNN, The Guardian, and RenewEconomy.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @12:32AM
We have dumb fuck politicians who still insist coal is the only way. Case in point? That dumb fuck Matt Canavan.
These people literally wan the government to subsidise building new coal fired power.
This battery array is the elephant in the room for all sides of politics.
They are all literally subservient to vested interests, coal, gas oil.
Nuclear even gets an occasional mention these days.
And honestly nothing compares to renewables and battery storage.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @02:28AM
n/t
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @02:28AM (6 children)
Pokes around and couldn't find the initial cost of this Tesla "big battery" installation (batteries + support-electronics). Anyone?
The "savings/year" number doesn't mean much if the payback is 20 years or something...
(Score: 4, Informative) by optotronic on Sunday March 01 2020, @02:53AM (4 children)
That was in Sept 2018:
https://electrek.co/2018/09/24/tesla-powerpack-battery-australia-cost-revenue/ [electrek.co]
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Sunday March 01 2020, @03:08AM (3 children)
Honestly, the cost savings is just a bonus to them. The proof of concept being functional was their main aim. I would say they've hit that target and then some.
I expected it to turn out to be a wash on saving money at best. At worst, I expected some industrial fire that couldn't be put out. Though, I guess a lithium fire would still be better than the nuclear power plant accidents that happened.
Then again, the battery doesn't make power at all. So I guess the real competitor is fast start electricity plants like natural gas. The battery is there to absorb the surge, not provide long term power.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday March 01 2020, @06:08AM (1 child)
Wile E Coyote pedalling mid-air is the only quicker source of energy.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 01 2020, @08:31AM
The problem with hydroelectric is that it is not available everywhere.
Where it is, even the energy storage is a solved problem: If there's excess electricity from other power forms, use it to pump water up. When you later need that energy, run that water through the plant.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2020, @02:16AM
Exactly, the batteries are there to stabilize electricity when wind, solar or a gas/coal central have a drop in it's own energy production. This give time to another gas/coal central push up it's production and return to the normal levels.
Without it, coal/gas centrals would need to keep producing excess energy to try to cope with power fluctuations. Even with a excess power, a big variations like a coal central problem may voltage levels go outside usable parameters. Prices make huge price jumps at this time, so not only breaks stable electricity, but it is also very expensive problem.
Batteries are great for this, energy maintain the correct levels and give time to restore productions levels in other centrals... batteries are also charged with solar or wind, when the price is low and avoid the price spikes.
I suspect increasing the batteries capacity give even more time to choose the correct central to increase or request increase in several centrals and avoid going outside current productions range (and probably extra costs of going outside planed ranges)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @06:55PM
Be sure to quantify all the human health savings on the lungs, and cancer from the chemicals.
Usually pro-life people say you can't put a price on a human life, so if we take that route then renewables and battery tech win even if they bankrupt the country :P
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Monday March 02 2020, @02:55AM
I'd like some help understanding this. Is this right?
The battery fills in for sudden losses in capacity generation or sudden surges in demand.
This role used to be fulfilled by petroleum powered plants.
The petroleum plants had to be run at production capacity, even when they were not needed, because surges and capacity drops were not predictable.
The key environmental benefit from this system comes from allowing those backup generation facilities to be spun up and down at predictable intervals instead of burning fuel when power wasn't needed.
If I've misunderstood, please set me on the right path.
Thanks.