With the advent of solar and wind energy, and sustainability being the heaviest buzzword in the energy development sector, big battery stations are getting more and more common. There are multiple energy storage projects going on worldwide, but none are bigger than Tesla’s new 1 GHz battery energy storage station in the US.
Being developed jointly by Pacific Gas & Energy (PG&E) and Tesla, the massive battery storage project is located in the Moss Landing, Monterey County, California. The massive batteries will be installed on the grounds at the existing PG&E electric substation in Moss Landing, enjoying the fame of being the largest energy storage system (for now).
The project is initially clocked to store 182.5 megawatts of power capable of injecting 730 MWh into the grid for 4 hours, the project has expansion capabilities which will soon push it delivering over 1.1 GWh for 6 hours. The mega energy storage project will utilize 256 of Tesla Megapack battery units, which will be standing on top of 33 large concrete slabs.
While the project has just only began pouring concrete on July of 2020, it’s expected to finish full construction completion within early 2021. The power storing process, or energization, will start at once after inauguration, but to achieve full capacity energy grid assistance they will take a few months more, rolling into the second quarter of 2021. Only then they will be usable to their full extent.
As with most other ongoing construction projects in the USA, it could have been done sooner if the pandemic didn’t hit. Either way, there is hope that the next phase or expansion of the Moss Landing battery project would start next year as soon as the existing phase has proven its stability.
However, it seems the glory of this massive battery project will be short lived. PG&G has already signed the contract of a new project in the same location with up to 300 MW battery storage levels, which is expected to output 1.2 GWh to the grid. This project will be developed by Vistra Energy, and it also has an expansion option to add another 100 MW of power storage capability to the batt-packs, topping up the already strong output by another 400 MWh.
Actually, PG&E has a lot of similar contracts on hand right now. For example, other than these giant projects, they are also staring on a 75 MW transmission connected power project at Morgan Hill, and a relatively tiny 2 MW project at Salinas Valley. As for up and running battery packs, they have a 20 MW energy storage system located the Llagas substation in Gilroy, California.
However enthusiastic PG&G may be about power storage, Tesla is even more so. Under Tesla’s belt, there is already the award of the world’s existing biggest battery station in Hornsdale, Australia. Also known as the ‘Tesla Big Battery’, this project can store 150 MW of power and deliver 193.5 MWh energy to the grid for 1.2 hours. Note that it is also an expanded system, which was initially clocked at 100 MW and 129 MWh at the end of its first phase construction.
Tesla has a lot of battery energy storage projects all over the world, but none are as big as these. Some of the other notable Tesla battery energy storage projects around the world are:
Though these battery packs are supplying good power to the grid for now, the landscape is set to change absolutely in a short while. This is because there are quite a few of around 100 MW power storage stations are under construction or will be in near future. This includes many projects in the United States as well as outside the states.
One of the most important among them is the 409 MW behemoth (that’s about a 100 million iPhone batteries, or 300 million AA batteries!) in Florida Power & Light Manatee Project. It will cover 40 acres of land, the equivalent of 30 football fields laid together. The huge project, when complete in late 2021, will be able to deliver 900 MWh of energy without considering any expansion, powering 3,29,000 homes in the region for two hours without breaking a sweat.
There are also large projects oncoming from Clean Power Alliance Lancaster, AES Alamitos Arizona, Strata Oxnard, the Minety project and so on. Together, they are sure to completely change our conception of how a power grid works.
