Early last year, local utility Southern California Edison (SCE) selected Strata Solar to develop a massive new battery project for Ventura County. Strata Solar then decided on Tesla’s Megapack for the project instead of its own battery system.
The company announced, “Strata Solar today announced its landmark battery project, Ventura Energy Storage (VES), a 100-megawatt, 400-megawatt hour battery energy storage system in unincorporated Ventura County, California, has completed pre-construction development. The Project, developed by Strata, has awarded an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract to Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) for the state-of-the-art Megapack battery system. Construction, using local union labor, is scheduled to commence in July 2020.”
And COVID-19 hasn’t even slowed down the development of the Ventura Energy Storage project. Officials met remotely via Zoom conference to issue the final approval. Ventura County CEO Mike Powers said, “The project will help to ensure local energy reliability, and in the event of a Public Safety Power Shutoff, the facility will convey stored energy to the grid, providing power to our local homes and businesses. This will help keep the lights on when some need it most. We appreciate these types of projects, especially as we adopt strategies to stimulate our local economy following the economic impacts of COVID-19.”
Ventura Energy Storage is set to be one of the largest energy storage installations in the United States. It has over three times the energy capacity of the Tesla Powerpack project in South Australia, which has been considered as “the biggest battery in the world.” It will have the ability to power 80,000 homes and businesses during peak demand.
The project is replacing what was going to be a new gas-fueled peaker plant. A peaker plant runs only when there is a high demand for electricity. However, they are polluting and generate emissions—battery storage; on the other hand, it is emissions-free. Meaning, the electric system is enhanced without increasing emissions. It is a great grid alternative to fossil fuel infrastructure.
Oxnard Mayor Tim Flynn said, “Ventura Energy Storage is exactly the type of modern and clean energy infrastructure investment our community needs.”
The Megapack is like a giant version of the Powerpack—both of which are utility-scale systems. The Powerwall is the residential home version of energy storage. Tesla wrote about its Megapack product in a blog post:
“Megapack significantly reduces the complexity of large-scale battery storage and provides an easy installation and connection process. Each Megapack comes from the factory fully assembled with up to 3 megawatt-hours (MWhs) of storage and 1.5 MW of inverter capacity, building on Powerpack’s engineering with an AC interface and 60% increase in energy density to achieve significant cost and time savings compared to other battery systems and traditional fossil fuel power plants.
Using Megapack, Tesla can deploy an emissions-free 250 MW, 1 GWh power plant in less than three months on a three-acre footprint—four times faster than a traditional fossil fuel power plant of that size. Megapack can also be DC-connected directly to solar, creating seamless renewable energy plants.”
Tesla aims to replace as many peaker plants with battery storage systems as possible to help decarbonize societies. They work by charging from the grid when demand is low and then discharging at peak demand to provide electricity. The next chapter in grid storage is already taking shape, as sodium-ion battery manufacturing arrives in the United States with a new gigafactory in Sacramento set to begin production in 2027.
