Tesla is going to deploy its new energy storage product, the Megapack, in a new big project to replace a gas peaker plant in Southern California.
After a year of anticipation, Tesla launched “Megapack” earlier this year.
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 3 MWh of storage capacity and a 1.5 MW 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.
Tesla was competing by simply configuring projects with a lot of Powerpacks, but now the Megapack is a new option better suited for larger projects:
Using Megapack, Tesla can deploy an emissions-free 250 MW, 1 GWh power plant in less than three months on a three-acre footprint — four times faster than a traditional fossil fuel power plant of that size. Megapack can also be DC-connected directly to solar, creating seamless renewable energy plants.
Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk asks utilities to buy the new Megapack to replace polluting and inefficient peaker plants.
We have learned of a giant project that will use the Megapack in Northern California.
Now the Independent reports on a second Tesla Megapack project, this time in Southern California:
Destined for the far side of the parking lot outside M.Special and Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, the 60-megawatt set of lithium-ion Megapacks — utility-scale batteries that have 60% more energy density than the Powerpack — would store power and return it to the grid when needed. Though the installation uses 41 of Tesla’s Megapacks, which are about 23 feet long, 8 feet high, and 5 feet wide, the installer is AltaGas, a Canadian company with US headquarters in Virginia, which provides natural gas to several East Coast cities and has expanded into the ‘clean energy’ field.
The Santa Barbara and Goleta region requires 285 megawatts during peak hours, and they have to rely on major transmission lines and gas peaker plants to supply power when demand reaches its peak.
The Tesla Megapack project is going to replace one of those peaker plants operated by Southern California Edison.
41 Megapacks are going to be deployed in Goleta, but the timeline is not clear at the moment.
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