JAMESTOWN, Australia (Reuters) — The world’s biggest lithium ion battery, built by Tesla, was switched on to feed Australia’s shaky grid just in time for the first day of summer, meeting an ambitious promise by Tesla’s Elon Musk to build it in 100 days or give it for free.
Tesla won a bid in July to build the 129-megawatt hour battery for the state of South Australia, which has expanded in wind power far quicker than the rest of the country and suffered a string of blackouts over the past 18 months.
The premier of South Australia, Jay Weatherill, said the mega-battery serves two functions. “This is an example of South Australia leading the world. The world’s largest lithium ion battery. It’s right here in Jamestown in South Australia and it’s already supplying power to the national electricity market.”
“It provides stabilization services, which is short bursts of electrical energy for the purposes of providing frequency control. The second thing it does is potentially provide an extra burst of energy to deal with reserve shortfalls,” he added.
The state, which had been paralysed by electricity outages in the past, has yet to reveal how much it is paying Tesla, after the company managed to beat the deadline to install it.
“And this is something to be proud of. This isn’t just a South Australian achievement, it’s a national achievement and we stand tall on the world stage exercising the function of leadership in relation to renewable energy. We’re very proud of it and the nation should be proud of it,” Weatherill concluded.
