As we approach Summer, South Australia’s big battery from Tesla is done. It’ll be fully operational after some further testing, but the build is complete. Tesla founder Elon Musk turned to Twitter to congratulate the team on beating the 100 day target he set.
Achieving the milestone of building the world’s largest battery (made up of many Tesla PowerPacks), the company also creates a new record for the largest industrial installation of lithium-ion battery storage in the shortest timeframe.
Once turned on, the 100 megawatts (MW) battery will provide enough energy to supply more than 30,000 homes, approximately equal to the amount of homes that lost power during the blackout period, the source for this whole project. International eyes will be watching the big battery goes live and as South Australia’s grid comes under strain over the warmer months.
If the power grid is fine over the next few months, it’ll be somewhat disappointing, as this technology will really only show its true capability if there is an outage in the system.
As to whether the world’s largest battery becomes a tourist attraction, that remains to be seen.
Congratulations to the Tesla crew and South Australian authorities who worked so hard to get this manufactured and installed in record time! https://t.co/M2zKXlIVn3
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2017
Sorry Jay Weatherill, you don’t get it for free.
