The world’s biggest battery was officially launched in Australia on Friday, a day after the Elon Musk-driven project was powered up early to meet demand amid a bout of hot weather, officials said.
Musk’s Tesla built the Powerpack system, which can provide electricity for more than 30,000 homes, to ease South Australia’s energy woes after the state was hit with a total blackout in 2016 following an “unprecedented” storm.
The maverick billionaire earlier this year offered on Twitter to build the battery farm, and completed it last week to narrowly beat his self-imposed deadline of having it ready in 100 days.
“South Australia is now leading the world in dispatchable renewable energy, delivered to homes and businesses 24/7,” state Premier Jay Weatherill said Friday at the launch to coincide with the first day of summer.
“This is history in the making.”
1) We see how well it all works. Does this size of battery actually truly aid in smoothing power dispatch?
2) We see how much it costs.
3) Such costs and effectiveness will no be incorporated into all financial estimates of intermittent power generation sources, won’t they?
I really want these to work as this will show what size / spare capacity is needed to *it* viable (or not)… if we can get the storage right then we can look at capture techniques and which ones work where… i’m sure solar is great in Africa and probably southern europe but don’t think i want to rely on it in a dark, wet and cold UK winter… However if we know we can store it then i’m sure other generating techniques will be invested in and something will work…
Fine in principle, Tim, but do we really believe that the numbers won’t be tortured to close to death before they’re made public and used to roll out the next phase of subsidies?
I pay taxes in South Australia. I bloody well don’t like our passive-aggressive Premier Jay Winer-all using public funds on a social experiment. You know and I know and any one with half a brain knows that we will never get any dividends back from this and that the profits will accrue only to one E. Musk. We certainly will never see reasonable power costs nor will we ever see reliable power supply until the nuclear bullet is bitten. That is unlikely to occur in my lifetime; such is the stupidity of mankind.
The torture has already begun. How would the world’s biggest flywheel have helped with the 2016 blackouts they mention? I’m guessing that was downed power cables and such?
“officially launched in Australia on Friday”: wouldn’t it get rather wet? Salt water and batteries aren’t a good combination.
dearieme
Booo!!! Hissss!! Gerroff!!
NielsR – Correct. That and a coal fired generator that had just been intentionally blown up. Had it been on line the outage might have effected a smaller area.
So basically expensive greenfreak bullshit was behind the power failure and the remedy is more expensive greenfreak bullshit. Whereas a normal old fashion real power station or two would completely resolve matters .
Note that powering 30000 homes is for little over an hour. Cyclone Debbie caused us to lose power for 54 hours, how much sweeter life would have been if that was just 53 hours.
Adelaide has a population of more than 1.2 million.
dearieme,
“Up periscope!”
A few hours without wind and let’s see what happens
Elon Musk and Australia go perfectly together. A man who lives on the high-hog on the back of government subsidies and a country full of spectacularly thick politicians who believe the government should hose public money at just about anything, especially if it allows them to virtue-signal as “world leaders”. They should make him PM.
‘Musk’s Tesla built the Powerpack system, which can provide electricity for more than 30,000 homes, to ease South Australia’s energy woes’
When then will the batteries be charged, and from where? They need more supply, not storage for the insufficient.
“….after the state was hit with a total blackout in 2016 following an “unprecedented” storm.”
Whenever you see “unprecedented” you know you are dealing with a lying bullshitting green cunt with the knowledge, intelligence, attention span and sense of history of a fruit fly.
It was nice of the authorities to wait until the project was half done before starting the 100 day countdown.
Elon Musk bet that Tesla could build the world’s biggest battery in 100 days. He won.
“The contract was signed on September 29, kicking off the 100 days (though at that point, Tesla was half-finished already).”
Gamecock, the article says it’s connected to a windfarm, hence my earlier comment
“which can provide electricity for more than 30,000 homes”
For how long?
Isn’t that the data we rather need here?
How big a bang will it make if it happens to release the stored energy in a lass than controlled manner?
Less not lass!!
Andrew D, I heard 4 minutes.
@Tim Worstall,
1. Correct, if honestly reported.
2. Correct, but any hidden subsidies?
3. In your dreams – unfortunately
Try reading the earlier comments, Andrew Duffin.
dearieme,
Alternatively, were the batteries launched to a site near the Apollo 11 area, we could have the energy storage so that our energy collection and storage system can survive a Lunar night.
Neither is the twisted use of launch that actually happened though.