South Australia Energy network has been struggling recently
During the heat wave last month, thousands of families were forced to cut power because there was not enough electricity to meet demand.
But Tesla thinks it has a solution.
Elon Musk, the company's billionaire boss, said he could install a battery farm capable of repairing the system within 100 days of signing the contract.
Tony Wood, an energy expert at the Grattan Institute, said this is a suggestion that should be taken seriously, but it is not the only available option for power storage.
The idea is that energy storage technology can power off when power goes off
Peak time and put it back into the grid when needed.
In addition, wind and solar power are intermittent sources of power generation, so if the grid is to rely entirely on renewable energy, it needs to be stored. (
Keep in mind that about half of South Australia's energy already comes from renewable sources, mainly wind and solar. )
Tesla's Powerpack is a much-watched storage technology.
Tesla says the battery is "infinitely scalable"
This means that an enterprise can purchase a Powerpack so that it still has power supply when there is a power outage, while a city, state or country can install hundreds of Powerpacks to support the entire grid, they have thousands or even millions.
In 2015, Musk said that you can turn the United States into renewable energy with 0. 16 billion of renewable energy and the world into renewable energy with 0. 9 billion of renewable energy.
Don't think he's just talking in theory;
This is the man who planned to send tourists around the moon in 2018 last month.
Tesla has built what it calls "the world's largest lithium-ion battery storage project" in Southern California ".
The company said the battery farm, which consists of 396 Powerpack 2 s, can power more than 2,500 homes a day.
It's always too expensive to be practical.
In order for it to make sense as an investment, the first savings must be greater than the cost of installing and running the battery.
The reason people are getting more interested in these batteries is because they are getting cheaper every year.
But whether they are economically meaningful remains to be discussed.
Roger dagavel of the Melbourne Energy Institute advised them not to do so during the conversation.
At present
The scale battery is much more expensive than "off -"
"River Pumped Storage ".
As we all know, PHES just push the water up.
Andrew Blakers, an expert on sustainable energy at the ANU, wrote in the conversation: "When there is an excess of power, water is pumped through a pipe or tunnel to the upstream reservoir . ".
"Later, by converting the water back to the turbine of the electricity, the flow of water flows down again to recover the energy.
It is possible to improve efficiency by 90 in each direction.
"So send the water up the slope when you have excess power;
Send it back when you need power.
Really clever.
Currently, this technology accounts for 97 of the world's electricity storage.
Professor Blakers said that the combination of PHES with wind and solar energy is cost-
Compete with fossil-fuel power stations.
Last month, Australian Energy chief executive Catherine Tanna said a desert site in South Australia would be the perfect choice for a proposed pumping project.
The company is supported by federal funds and the target date for operations is 2020 if the project continues.
"If South Australia recently had a pumping project of this size, there would be no need for a load reduction there," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said . ".
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