Australia is building the world’s largest battery in a coal mine
Giant battery from Tesla in South Australia. (Photo: Hornsdale Power Reserve / Neoen)
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In order to be able to store electricity from renewable energies, Australia is building the largest battery in the world – in a former coal mine. The system is said to have an output of 1,200 megawatts.
In 2017, Tesla boss Elon Musk installed the largest battery in the world to date in just 100 days as part of a bet in South Australia – as an intermediate storage device for the electricity generated from renewable energy sources. The system with 100 megawatts of power is said to have helped to stabilize the power grid, prevent blackouts and save money for the households connected. Since then, other providers have launched or are planning such huge battery systems. A new record-sized battery will soon be put into operation.
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1,200 megawatt battery is scheduled to start in 2023
The CEP-Energy fund, which specializes in renewable energies, announced on Friday that it would start building a 1,200-megawatt plant in early 2022. One year later, the world’s largest battery will be launched. In the long term, the temporary storage facility is intended to help ensure that the former coal region of Hunter Valley quickly makes the transition to environmentally friendly power generation. According to CEP Energy Chairman Morris Iemma, large batteries will play an increasingly important role in the future when it comes to closing the gaps from the dismantling of electricity generation from coal and gas.
With an output of 1,200 megawatts, the Hunter Valley project would be by far the largest battery in the world, like Bloomberg reports. This title is currently held by the Moss Landing project in the US state of California, which the operator Vistra is expanding into a 400 megawatt system. However, other projects in Australia are making the current leader contest its place in the ranking. In the Australian state of New South Wales, Origin Energy and Neoen from France are planning systems with 700 and 500 megawatts, respectively. Neoen is also currently working on another 300 megawatt plant in Victoria, Australia.
Umweltfonds is planning a huge virtual power plant
CEP-Energy should soon publish an official tender for the search for a battery provider, writes Bloomberg. It is not known whether Tesla wants to apply for it. However, the Californian electric car manufacturer supplied the batteries for the Hornsdale Power Reserve project operated by Neoen in Australia. In addition to a physical electricity storage facility, CEP-Energy is also planning a huge virtual power plant that will be created across Australia by linking solar systems and battery storage systems.
