If you were a manager at a utility, or a planner with a government which wished to reduce its country's carbon emissions, you would probably look to replace a baseload coal or gas power station with something which produced near-baseload output. In mid- and high latitudes that is easily done with a mixture of wind, solar, storage, some overcapacity, and interconnectors which link different geographical regions. In low latitudes ( between 20 N and S), wind speeds are lower, so grids would need to have a larger solar component.
I'm estimating that 8 hours of storage would be enough to allow for near-24 hours of continuous output on the assumption that overnight demand is ⅔rds of daytime demand. Of course, the wind blows at night, so on that account you'd need less storage, but on the other hand, although solar peaks at midday, demand typically peaks between 2 and 6 pm, so you'd need stored electricity for that period. The CSIRO has estimated how much demand would be needed at varying levels of renewables penetration. 8 hours of storage will be enough for 90% renewables penetration, although, in a 100% solar grid in the low latitudes (it makes little sense elsewhere) at least 12 hours would be needed. And it would be wonderful for managers and planners if the new renewable baseload plant could be "plug and play".
I'm estimating that 8 hours of storage would be enough to allow for near-24 hours of continuous output on the assumption that overnight demand is ⅔rds of daytime demand. Of course, the wind blows at night, so on that account you'd need less storage, but on the other hand, although solar peaks at midday, demand typically peaks between 2 and 6 pm, so you'd need stored electricity for that period. The CSIRO has estimated how much demand would be needed at varying levels of renewables penetration. 8 hours of storage will be enough for 90% renewables penetration, although, in a 100% solar grid in the low latitudes (it makes little sense elsewhere) at least 12 hours would be needed. And it would be wonderful for managers and planners if the new renewable baseload plant could be "plug and play".
To cater for the rapidly increasing global demand for storage, Tesla has introduced a new product, Megapacks.
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| Tesla Megapack |
(From Tesla Energy via CleanTechnica)
Less than two years ago, Tesla built and installed the world’s largest lithium-ion battery in Hornsdale, South Australia, using Tesla Powerpack batteries. Since then, the facility saved nearly $40 million in its first year alone and helped to stabilize and balance the region’s unreliable grid.
Battery storage is transforming the global electric grid and is an increasingly important element of the world’s transition to sustainable energy. To match global demand for massive battery storage projects like Hornsdale, Tesla designed and engineered a new battery product specifically for utility-scale projects: Megapack.
Megapack significantly reduces the complexity of large-scale battery storage and provides an easy installation and connection process. Each Megapack comes from the factory fully-assembled with up to 3 megawatt hours (MWhs) of storage and 1.5 MW of inverter capacity, building on Powerpack’s engineering with an AC interface and 60% increase in energy density to achieve significant cost and time savings compared to other battery systems and traditional fossil fuel power plants. 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.
For utility-size installations like the upcoming Moss Landing project in California with PG&E, Megapack will act as a sustainable alternative to natural gas “peaker” power plants. Peaker power plants fire up whenever the local utility grid can’t provide enough power to meet peak demand. They cost millions of dollars per day to operate and are some of the least efficient and dirtiest plants on the grid. Instead, a Megapack installation can use stored excess solar or wind energy to support the grid’s peak loads.
Tesla developed its own software in-house to monitor, control and monetize Megapack installations. All Megapacks connect to Powerhub, an advanced monitoring and control platform for large-scale utility projects and microgrids, and can also integrate with Autobidder, Tesla’s machine-learning platform for automated energy trading. Tesla customers have already used Autobidder to dispatch more than 100 GWh of energy in global electricity markets. And, just as Tesla vehicles benefit from continued software updates over time, Megapack continues to improve through a combination of over-the-air and server-based software updates.
As the world’s transition to sustainable energy continues to accelerate, the market for advanced battery storage solutions is growing rapidly. In the past year alone, we have installed more than 1 GWh of global storage capacity with our current storage products, Powerwall and Powerpack, bringing our total global footprint to more than 2 GWh of cumulative storage. With Megapack, this number will continue to accelerate exponentially in the coming years.
- Every Megapack arrives pre-assembled and pre-tested in one enclosure from our Gigafactory—including battery modules, bi-directional inverters, a thermal management system, an AC main breaker and controls. No assembly is required, all you need to do is connect Megapack’s AC output to your site wiring.
Applications:
- 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.
- Renewable Smoothing—Smooth out the intermittency of renewables by storing and dispatching when needed
- T&D Investment Deferral—Postpone costly grid infrastructure upgrades by supplying power at a distributed location to defer the need to upgrade aging infrastructure
- Voltage Support—Inject and absorb reactive power to maintain local voltage levels on the grid
- Capacity Support—Discharge at times of peak capacity to reduce demands on distribution and transmission infrastructure
- Microgrid—Build a localized grid that can disconnect from the main power grid
- Market Participation—Provide service to the grid in response to signals sent by system operators
- Frequency Regulation—Maintain grid stability by rapidly changing charge or discharge power in response to changes in grid frequency
This is pretty much the epitome of "plug and play". Installation in three months! This reminds us of Musk's bet that he could build the (then) largest battery storage project in South Australia in 100 days or it would be free! Of course, he succeeded, the big battery was an outstanding success, and its success launched a plethora of new mega battery projects round the world. I suspect that the new Megapacks are proportionately 40% cheaper than the big battery was, given how much battery prices have fallen.
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