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Tesla’s new Megapack to debut at giant energy storage project in California

Electrek has learned some exclusive information about Tesla’s Megapack, the company’s upcoming new stationary energy storage product.

The big new battery system is going to debut at Tesla’s giant 1.2 GWh energy storage project with PG&E in California.

Tesla Megapack

As we reported earlier this year, Tesla is working on a new energy storage system called ‘Megapack’.

Not much was known about the product at the time.

Electrek can now confirm that it’s a large container-size energy storage system that Tesla plans to debut in its upcoming project commissioned by PG&E at the Moss Landing substation.

We obtained Tesla’s proposal for the project and it shows that the company plans to use ‘Megapack’ instead of its usual Powerpack for large utility-scale projects.

According to the document, a Tesla Megapack consists of long 23′-5″ (7.14m) x 5′-3″ (1.60m) battery system, which the company mostly installs back to back with another unit:

 

The California Public Utilities Commission approved the project last month and along with 3 other energy storage system, the new energy storage capacity is so important that it will replace three gas power plants.

According to Tesla’s plan, they will deploy 449 Megapacks at the site:

Tesla is listing the project as having a total capacity of 1,200 MWh, which would mean that each Megapack has a capacity of 2,673 kWh.

That’s more than 12 times the capacity of Powerpack 2 in a package that could potentially fit about 8 Powerpacks.

The total capacity of those 449 Megapacks represents more energy capacity than Tesla Energy deployed throughout its first 3 years of operation – all Powerpacks and Powerwalls combined.

PG&E says that they aim to bring the energy project online by the end of 2020.

We contacted Tesla about using the new Megapack at the Vistra Energy Moss Landing station project and a company spokesperson said that they had no comment.

Electrek’s Take

It’s fitting that Tesla would introduce a new giant energy storage product at this giant energy storage project. It’s hard to overstate the size of this project.

It could be a game changer for California.

As for the Megapack, it looks like Tesla achieved a volumetric energy capacity improvement over Powerpack 2, but that’s not even the biggest improvement with the Megapack.

Tesla is going to save a fortune in installation costs for large projects since a single Megapack is going to be a lot quicker to install than the dozen Powerpacks it would be replacing.

If we have electricians around who can find other interesting information from the proposal, let us know in the comment section below or with the contact info below.

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

Fred is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at Electrek.

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