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John O | February 2017

Tesla creates battery farm to assist with energy spikes on the grid


in ontario, calif., 40 minutes outside of los angeles, tesla has built its biggest battery farm, composed of the same battery cells that it uses in its electric vehicles,  to store energy and meet spikes in the electrical grid usage, for instance during the warm summer months when air conditioners are frequently in operation.

 

tesla_600_01

tesla has created a gigafactory to store solar energy to benefit the local power grid. (vimeo)

 

according to an article from the guardian, this battery farm in the mira loma substation of southern california edison, has a capacity of 20 megawatts and can discharge 80-megawatt hours of electricity in a four-hour period.

 

the article added, “it contains enough batteries to run about 1,000 tesla cars, and the equivalent energy to supply power to 15,000 homes for four hours. the company declined to disclose the project’s cost.”

 

this is a key component of tesla’s strategy to expand beyond electric vehicles and into residential and commercial cooling, which was recently highlighted on this website when tesla ceo elon musk announced plans for the solar roof.

 

the battery farm can be used to store solar energy during the sun-rich days in southern california and then used at night or used by utilities to avoid blackouts when the power plants fail to keep up with the demand of the grid.

 

“edison and other california utilities hired tesla and a few other battery farm builders after an important natural gas reservoir near los angeles, called aliso canyon, closed following a huge leak and massive environmental disaster in late 2015,” the article explained.

 

it continued, “the leak forced thousands of people in nearby neighborhoods to evacuate. it also left utilities worried about how they’d meet the peak electricity demands of coming summers if they weren’t able to dip into the natural gas storage whenever they need fuel to produce power. they couldn’t always get natural gas shipment from other suppliers quick enough to meet a sharp rise in electricity consumption.”

 

tesla is not alone in creating battery projects. aes energy storage has built a 37.5-megawatt assembly with samsung lithium-ion batteries in san diego county. the california public utilities commission has set a target of 1,325 megawatts by 2020.

 

“the company believes its expertise in engineering and building electric cars sets itself apart from other battery farm developers,” said the article about tesla. “tesla has been developing battery packs for a decade and improved the technology that manages the batteries temperatures, which can be high enough to pose a fire risk.”


watch the video below to learn more about tesla’s gigafactory project in sparks, nevada, which the company hopes will have an annual battery production capacity of 35 gigawatt-hours:


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