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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: 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.
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