Battery-powered revolution: Tesla storage plant to power 15K Californian homes - lithium ion batteries for sale
Tesla's 80 MW storage station at the Miramar substation uses 400 of the company's new Powerpack 2 Lithium
Ion batteries work by absorbing electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar during the day and feeding it back to the system on demand when the sun sets.
"Sometimes it's hard to understand how fast this is all going," said J. B. Strubel, Tesla's chief technology officer.
"Our storage capacity is growing at the rate that humans can.
"The aging Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, which has had a huge gas leak in the past few months, leaked the gas to its home near the Porter Ranch in Los Angeles in 2015, this prompted Southern California electric power to sign an energy storage agreement to mitigate the risk of a power outage in the winter.
The request was also prompted by the closure or phasing out of the country's aging nuclear power plants.
"By 2020, my expectations for the battery industry were relatively limited.
I don't think it will really accelerate and start to penetrate the grid or the transportation world for some time to come, "said Michael pique, chairman of the California utilities commission, according to the New York Times.
"Once again, technology has obviously grown faster than we have in terms of regulation.
"The other two storage projects will go live with Tesla station.
Altagas Co. , Ltd. is participating in its natural gas generator battery project in Pomona, and AES is conducting final testing at its 30/120 MW plant.
In recent years, due to the increase in demand for electric vehicles, resulting in a new scale of battery storage manufacturing, the price of lithium-ion batteries has plummeted by nearly half.
These factors make the battery plant a viable alternative to natural gas.
During peak time of energy use, burn "peaker" plants as needed.
"There are teams working there 24 hours a day, living in a construction trailer, doing commissioning work at two in the morning, and Tesla's Strubel said the plant was built in less than three months.
"It's like we need to change the pace of the world.
"Using a battery to meet peak demand means it is possible to be fully charged and discharged almost every day.
This demand puts a lot of pressure on lithium batteries, which will degrade as they grow older and will be recycled more frequently.
But it has many advantages in a state with strict environmental regulations like California.
The battery plant covers a much smaller area than natural gas.
They don't pollute and their immediate response can provide valuable services better than any other technology.
Tesla believes it can continue to expand the new system quickly and achieve its ambitious goal of providing 15 gigawatts of battery storage time each year by 2020.