Tesla deploys new Megapacks at ‘WindCharger’ project

Tesla is deploying new Megapacks, its latest and biggest energy product, at a new “Windcharger” project in Canada.

The automaker launched “Megapack” last year through its “Tesla Energy” division.

It’s the company’s latest energy storage product, after the Powerpack and the Powerwall, and it is meant as an even bigger option targeting electric utility projects.

According to Tesla, a single Megapack has up to 3MWh of storage capacity and a 1.5MW inverter.

The company’s energy storage business has found some success with electric utility companies through the years with its Powerpack, but the competition has been offering bigger options, and now Megapack is Tesla’s response.

By integrating everything into the unit, Tesla claims that it takes almost half the space and gets installed much faster than other products:

At the site level, Megapack requires 40% less space and 10x fewer parts than current systems on the market. As a result, this high-density, modular system can be installed 10x faster than current systems.

We are slowly starting to see companies opting for the Megapacks with a few installations over the last year.

Now we learn of a new project with TransAlta, an electric company based in Alberta, Canada.

They have been looking into using battery storage at some of their renewable energy production sites to best utilize their assets:

TransAlta has been investigating the viability of battery storage at our various wind farm locations over the past number of years.

TransAlta’s Summerview Wind Farm was selected as the first site to get battery storage capacity.

The project is called “WindCharger” and the company confirmed that it will use Tesla Megapacks:

TransAlta’s WindCharger will be the first lithium-ion, utility-scale battery storage project in Alberta. It will utilize Tesla’s Megapack battery technology, charged with electricity from our Summerview Wind Farm.

Last week, they shared a few pictures of the deployments of the new Tesla battery packs:

When completed, it’s going to have a 10MW power capacity with a total storage capacity of 20MWh, which is quite large for a first project to test battery storage.

TransAlta aims to turn the Tesla Megapacks online by the end of the month.

Despite the product being fairly new, it’s actually not the first Tesla Megapack being deployed in Canada.

Earlier this year, we reported on Saint John Energy getting a Megapack on the other side of the country, but the project involved only a single Megapack.

This new WindCharger project seems to involve nine Megapacks to help TransAlta more efficiently use its wind power.