What started as a bet between Elon Musk and Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, is about to provide Australia with even more power. Tesla CEO Elon Musk bet Mike that he could build the world’s largest lithium battery in under 100 days or it would be free.
Well, Elon and Tesla delivered on that promise and the results were quite impressive. The numbers for 2018 showed that the South Australian facility generated more than $72 million and saved consumers more than $50 million in its first year. The Hornsdale Power Reserve as it’s known was created to help the region with its energy troubles.
The project has enjoyed such success that they are about to double its size. The reserve is going to receive a 50 MW/64.5 MWh expansion. The result of which is going to make the world’s largest lithium-ion battery 50% larger.
This Tesla Powerpack expansion is going to allow the reserve farm to provide digital or virtual inertia to the grid. Once the installation has been completed, the additional power will be capable of providing 50% of the states inertia requirements, or 3,000 ‘megawatt seconds.” This will hopefully eliminate the need for synchronous machines that are usually powered by coal, hydro, or gas.
This upgrade to the battery pack is fully supported by the South Australian government who will be committing 3 million AUD ($2 million US) per year for 5 years to help support the project. The money will be coming out of their Grid-Scale Storage Fund.
Along with the South Australian government, The Australian Renewable Energy Agency is going to commit 8 million AUD ($5.46 million US) in grant funding through the Advancing Renewables Program. Based on the success of the program the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is also willing to chip in financial support.
The video from Hyperchange estimates between 500-600 new power packs will be added to the facility along with new invertors installed. This is only an estimate by Hyperchange, we won’t know the actual numbers until it is reported by either Tesla or the Hornsdale Power Reserve.
This is big news for both Tesla and Australia based on the current and past success of the Power Reserve. Maybe billionaires should start betting against each other more often, especially if we see results like this.
