Gaelectric inks 1 MW deal to bring Tesla’s Powerpacks to Ireland

Gaelectric Group CEO, Brendan McGrath and Gaelectric Head of Energy Storage, Keith McGrane at the Tesla Energy event last month

Ireland’s Gaelectric Group entered into an agreement with Tesla Motors to build a 1 MW demonstration utility-scale project. The project is expected to be deployed in 2016. The company is among the firsts to sign a “utility-scale” deal with Tesla. Executives from Gaelectric were among the electric utility industry specialists invited to the event introducing Tesla Energy at Tesla’s design studio in Los Angeles. Here’s Brendan McGrath, Gaelectric Group CEO, on the deal:

We are delighted to be associated with Tesla in introducing its battery systems to Ireland. As a renewable energy group with a pipeline of 500 MW of wind power in Ireland and energy storage projects in Ireland and Europe, Gaelectric has an obvious incentive to drive the adoption of technologies that facilitate the economic dispatch of wind and other renewable sources.

The demonstration project is meant to start a collaboration between the two companies to develop a pipeline of multiple battery projects to build new transmission system services required to facilitate the integration of renewable energy sources. They are positioning themselves to be able to distribute not only Tesla’s Powerpack, the commercial size battery pack sold in increments of 100 KWh storage capacity, but also Tesla’s residential battery packs, the Powerwall, available in 7 and 10 KWh stackable battery packs.

According to the company, Ireland has “many compelling features” for the commercialisation of energy storage systems, including Tesla Energy products. They mention “ambitious renewable energy targets” and “favourable regulatory framework”. They also confirmed that research into the potential of other European markets for energy storage systems is also part of their collaboration with Tesla.

Gaelectric Head of Energy Storage, Keith McGrane, commenting on the agreement:

The accelerating pace of storage technology development and its application to how we generate, use and store power is truly astounding. Much of these developments are around incorporating greater amounts of renewable power while protecting the stability of our transmission systems and controlling costs. Tesla is the vanguard for the revolution that is currently underway