Tesla’s massive Powerpack battery in Australia cost $66 million and already made up to ~$17 million

We have already seen several pieces of evidence that Tesla’s massive Powerpack battery project in Australia is quite financially successful, but now we get all the numbers as Neoen, Tesla’s partner in the project, files for IPO.

The giant battery cost ~$66 million and it reportedly already made up to $17 million during the first ~6 months of operation.

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%.

The energy storage capacity is managed by Neoen, which operates the adjacent wind farm.

Last week, Neoen filed for a IPO on the Paris financial market and in its registration documents, the company revealed new financial details about the big battery.

The French energy company revealed that the entire system cost 56 million euros (~$66 million USD).

While it’s interesting to finally have the full cost of the giant Powerpack system, it’s even more interesting to get an idea of the return on investment as Neoen confirmed the revenue generated by the system so far.

The French company disclosed that they made 8,1 million euros ($9.5 million USD) for the grid services and energy sales and 6,7 million euros ($7.9 million USD) for storing and selling electricity from the Hornsdale wind farm.

It’s unclear how Neoen is attributing the value of the stored electricity from its wind farm since it is accounting the two assets as a whole in terms of revenue, but it would mean the battery system generated between ~$10 million and $17 million during roughly its first 6 months of operation and it is on pace for over $20 million in revenue during its first year.

The cost of operation are not made clear in the filings, but we would assume that they are fairly low, which would make the return on investment extraordinary quick for the massive project.

Tesla recently released new images of the completed system and a timelapse of its construction:

Neoen is trying to raise 450 million euros with its IPO in order to accelerate its renewable energy deployment. The company currently has a capacity of 2 GW and it wants to be at 5 GW by the end of 2021.

Here’s Neoen’s full ‘document de base’ for its IPO (it’s in French):

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