Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
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Re: Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
#2For obvious reasons there's a lot of focus on Tesla's automobiles, but part of me wonders if these Powerpack grid batteries aren't the real innovation and killer product for the company.
Re: Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
#3This outcome is in a particularly distorted badly operated market, one where for no very good reasons regulatory power is not being applied, and distorted bidding for FCAS and peak supply has been the norm. It's hugely politicised, and in the context of a rejection of carbon trading and an attempt by the ruling federal liberal-national government to wedge coal into the mix (it's basically uneconomic now, and won't get any better but the lib hats want it come what may)
The battery couldn't have come at a better time. It's an initiative of a state labor government, now tossed out, and it's signals how much could have been achieved with decent capital investment in alternative power sources. That said, it's role here is frequency stabilisation not power: it's a tiny percentage of the states power burden. The states solar and wind was (alas) not required to have any associated storage capacity or supply FCAS services, both things which alter the economics in favour of more traditional coal, and gas peaked power supply.
There are more batteries on the way. There are pumped hydro systems in design. Things are getting better.
Re: Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
#4It’s also a national embarrassment according to the government treasurer who likened it to Australia’s tourist stop big things such as The Big Banana.
What I love about it is that it’s forcing the governments hand. They have vested interests in the coal industry but cannot continue to overlook this when electricity prices are so high in Australia.
Re: Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
#5For obvious reasons there's a lot of focus on Tesla's automobiles, but part of me wonders if these Powerpack grid batteries aren't the real innovation and killer product for the company.
In the long run, it does seem like a bigger business opportunity than the vehicle based business.
Re: Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
#6For obvious reasons there's a lot of focus on Tesla's automobiles, but part of me wonders if these Powerpack grid batteries aren't the real innovation and killer product for the company.
The car sales of Tesla are creating the battery production volume that allows to be price competitive for the grid solutions. Grid scale battery storage will be the future, as the car industry alone is going to increase the world battery production by about 100x, driving down the prices strongly, and not even counting the second life of car cells in storage after they are down on capacity.
Re: Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
#7For obvious reasons there's a lot of focus on Tesla's automobiles, but part of me wonders if these Powerpack grid batteries aren't the real innovation and killer product for the company.
Are they unique in the fact that they're uniquely producable by Tesla?
I agree it's a much more tangible market from my perspective (ref. the prod issue on the vehicle side) and is only really purchasable by state actors.
If they can get the first mover advantage actually rolling before someone else enters the market than this will be a huge boon to their bottom line.
Re: Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
#8This outcome is in a particularly distorted badly operated market, one where for no very good reasons regulatory power is not being applied, and distorted bidding for FCAS and peak supply has been the norm. It's hugely politicised, and in the context of a rejection of carbon trading and an attempt by the ruling federal liberal-national government to wedge coal into the mix (it's basically uneconomic now, and won't ge…
> This outcome is in a particularly distorted badly operated market, one where for no very good reasons regulatory power is not being applied . . .
You described most energy markets on the planet.
Re: Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
#9Zero emmissions
If nuclear has to include the costs of dismantling the plants, batteries have to include the cost of building them. And wind generators are massive aluminum structures, which are extremely costly to shape.
Some day, maybe. Let's be fair in the meantime.
Re: Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%
#10This outcome is in a particularly distorted badly operated market, one where for no very good reasons regulatory power is not being applied, and distorted bidding for FCAS and peak supply has been the norm. It's hugely politicised, and in the context of a rejection of carbon trading and an attempt by the ruling federal liberal-national government to wedge coal into the mix (it's basically uneconomic now, and won't ge…
> This outcome is in a particularly distorted badly operated market, one where for no very good reasons regulatory power is not being applied . . . You described most energy markets on the planet.
It’s particularly bad in Australia and South Australia where this battery is was the worst.
Australia despite having abundant reserves of coal, gas and uranium as well as excellent solar and wind locations has some of their most expensive electricity prices in the world.