The Moss Landing Power Plant located halfway between Monterey and Santa Cruz is about to get an overhaul. Tesla and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) are partnering up to construct the largest energy storage facility in the U.S. and possibly the largest in the world. The 1GWh Megapack will be known as the Elkhorn Battery Storage Facility.
The Power Plant that currently sits on the property is not only an eyesore, it has been steadily declining in its ability to generate power, as Monterey County Supervisor John Philips points out:
It’s huge for the area and as you know the power plant has been gradually shutting down and they producing about one-tenth of the power they used to produce in the past and that hurts us from a tax standpoint.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1232885671464853504
The Monterey County Planning Commission voted unanimously in favor of the new storage facility months after awarding Vistra Energy an approval to begin a 1,200 megawatt (MWh) facility close by on the Dynegy Power Plant grounds.
The Elkhorn Battery Storage Facility is expected to provide 730-MWh of renewable energy during off-peak hours, with further potential of a possible 1.095GWh of energy storage. The new facility is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
The new facility is expected to be nearly 10x larger than Tesla’s Hornsdale Power Reserve located in South Australia. In 2018, the Hornsdale Power Reserve saved consumers AUD40 million ($26.14 million) and in its 2nd year 2019, the numbers soared to a savings of AUD116 million ($75.78 million). The amount of savings the Hornsdale facility has brought in just two years has been so substantial that they will now double the size of the facility.
According to reports by Electrek, Tesla has plans to use a Megapack over the traditional Powerpack design. The Megapack’s dimensions are 23ft 5in (7.14m) x 5ft 3in (1.60m) and they are normally installed side by side. They require 40% less space, have 10x fewer parts, and can be installed 10x faster than current systems.
The Elkhorn Battery Storage Facility and the Dynegy Power Plants will provide energy to the grid using the existing power lines.
The old run-down fossil fuel plant on site will soon be nothing but a memory, replaced by renewable clean energy and the world’s largest battery to store it in. This will not only have a great economic impact on the area, but it will further reduce the Golden State’s carbon footprint.
