Just a few months ago Elon Musk won a plant that could cost his company a lot of money - Tesla built in South Australia the world's largest lithium-ion battery in just 100 days.
Visualization of an installation consisting of Tesla batteries [5]
Problems with Renewable Energy Sources
Renewable Energy Sources have a lot of pluses, which I wrote about in previous entries. However, there is one problem with them - energy storage. For a very long time it seemed that it is a step not to jump - panels generate energy in the day, only when there is sun, windmills work only when the wind blows. The batteries for energy storage were expensive and unprofitable, and pumped storage power plants that can effectively store energy for a long time - are only profitable in certain geographical regions (they are, for example, extremely popular in mountainous Norway).
The largest pumped storage power plant in Poland - Czymanów
Tesla, along with the development of electric car production technology, has developed effective batteries suitable for use together with RES.
Twitter bet
In southern Australia, for some time the inhabitants had to deal with problems in power supply. Wind farms were subject to breakdowns, and at moments of extremely high temperatures, the network could not cope. The answer to these problems is perhaps an installation for storing energy.
It all began when Atlassian's director and Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes wrote on Twitter to Elon Muska, quoting Lyndon Rive, who heads the battery department of Tesla.
Rive said he would "commit" to install a 100-300 megawatt hours battery to help stop the recent loss of power in South Australia.
"We do not have 300MWh batteries that are ready for work, but I will make sure that it can be done," he said.
Cannon-Brookes sent a tweet to Musk, asking him if he could really do it if the funds were available and political support was guaranteed.
Elon Musk proposed the plant: "If within 100 days of signing the contract, Tesla will not run the Battery in Australia - it undertakes to deliver the entire installation for free."
On November 23, Tesla announced that the plant was won and the work on the battery farm was completed. The installation, built at the Hornsdale wind farm, has a capacity of 100 MW (129 MWh capacity). The battery consists of Tesla Powerpackes connected to each other
Battery and RES cost-effectiveness
It turns out that a large installation from PowerPacks is a profitable investment. It was launched on December 1, 2017. In just a few days, Neoen, the owner of the installation, has made more than a million dollars in storing and selling energy. The advantage of Tesla batteries over other types of storage, and especially the production of fossil fuels, is the ability to immediately turn on and off, which means that it is able to react immediately to changes in demand as well as in market prices immediately.
Summary
Energy storage technology is becoming more and more efficient. Storing energy from RES is no longer a problem. Thanks to this, we can count on the increase in the popularity of RES, which translates into less pollution of the environment, as well as more "green", or environmentally friendly architecture.
Hey @dudupl, coincidentally dropped by and saw your interesting post.
This is a great write up about Tesla's ambition to create an off grid community.
My partners and I had just started an initiative called #archisteem. Whenever you post about architecture, feel free to use this tag. I will scout through and give relevant support :)
Steem on!