Tesla wins contract for another massive battery system with Powerpacks

Tesla’s energy division is on a roll when it comes to large battery projects, especially in Australia since the success of its giant battery system in in the country.

Now we learn that Tesla won another contract for a massive battery system project to deploy Powerpacks at another wind farm in Australia.

Tesla’s 100MW/129MWh Powerpack project in South Australia provide the same grid services as peaker plants, but cheaper, quicker, and with zero-emissions, through its battery system.

It is so efficient that it reportedly should have made around $1 million in just a few days in January, but Tesla later complained that they are not being paid correctly because the system doesn’t account for how fast Tesla’s Powerpacks start discharging their power into the grid.

The system is basically a victim of its own efficiency, which the Australian Energy Market Operator confirmed is much more rapid, accurate and valuable than a conventional steam turbine in a report published earlier this year.

Overall, it is estimated that Tesla’s giant battery in Australia reduced the grid service cost by 90%.

Other markets want similar results, especially in Australia where they arguably need it the most, and they have been ordering similar large-scale projects from Tesla over the past year.

The latest was announced today by Infigen Energy, a developer, owner and operator of renewable energy generation assets in Australia.

They ordered a 25 MW / 52 MWh energy storage system from Tesla to be deployed at their 278.5 MW Lake Bonney Wind Farm – becoming the latest of several Tesla battery projects in South Australia.

South Australia Minister for Energy Dan van Holst Pellekaan welcomed Infigen’s investment:

“The Marshall Government are strong supporters of increasing battery storage to harness the full potential of South Australia’s abundant renewable energy and the lower prices that will be delivered to households and businesses,”

The project is expected to cost “approximately $38 million” (~$27.5 million USD) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) along with the SA Government are each committing $5 million in grant funding ($10 million in total).

They are expecting construction to start “in the coming weeks.”

Tesla’s energy division is seeing “crazy” growth, according to CEO Elon Musk and CTO JB Straubel.

Straubel recently confirmed that the company has now installed over 1 GWh of energy storage and they aim to deploy another GWh of energy storage in just the next 9 to 12 months.

The Powerpack is likely to account for the vast majority of the capacity deployed thanks to several big projects coming up – including the massive ‘up to 1.1 GWh’ Powerpack battery system that Tesla and PG&E are working on.

This new project is nowhere near that size, but it is still one of Tesla’s biggest Powerpack projects to date.