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Featured Aussi Powerwall, Musk pisses off climate deniers

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by bwilson4web, Nov 23, 2017.

  1. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    Source: Elon Musk wins bet, finishing massive battery installation in 100 days | Ars Technica

    Tesla has completed construction of a massive 100 megawatt, 129 MWh battery installation in South Australia. The new facility boasts the largest megawatt rating for any grid-connected battery installation in the world.

    The project was completed less than two months after the contract was signed on September 29, putting it ahead of schedule. Musk had promised Australian authorities that he would complete the project in 100 days or the project would be free. Musk has said it would cost Tesla "$50 million or more" if the company failed to meet the deadline.

    "Congratulations to the Tesla crew and South Australian authorities who worked so hard to get this manufactured and installed in record time!" Musk tweeted late on Wednesday night (Thursday in Australia).

    The state of South Australia saw a need to beef up its electricity infrastructure after a September 2016 storm caused a state-wide blackout. State officials wanted to ensure that didn't happen again, and they wanted to find a solution that made use of renewable energy.

    The Hornsdale Wind Farm near Jamestown, South Australia, produces 315 megawatts of power, but like any wind farm it's not a steady source of power. So Tesla's batteries will charge up during periods when the wind farm is producing excess energy, then supply extra power to the grid during periods of peak demand.
    . . .

    The central government in Australia, a Murdoch enterprise, has been pro-coal and anti-renewable for a long time. This battery farm is an 'in your face' reply. Hummm, the new roadster, Model 3, Space X, and battery farm, good thing Musk is vindictive.

    Bob Wilson
     
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  2. godzillaismad

    godzillaismad Member

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    If this is how a company does its stuff, we could all be better for it. Well done to Tesla, this has definitely shut a lot of critics up!

    The current crop could now see it's not the shutting down of coal power stations that crippled SA power grid. Will be interesting to see what their next argument would be. Hopefully it won't be the battery is harmful to make and will create a big landfill... Just watch out for news articles at the Murdoch press.

    BTW, are you folks in America claiming Murdoch one of yours? If so, it's not too bad given you have Musk to cancel out each other!

    SM-G900I ?
     
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  3. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    Nor Mel Gibson or Bob Lutz.


    Bob Wilson
     
    #3 bwilson4web, Nov 24, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2017
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  4. William Redoubt

    William Redoubt Senior Member

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    129 MWh? That's a drop in the bucket for most power outages. Say 12,000 homes for 1 eight hour period. To make a difference, you'd need one of these in every neighborhood. And wasn't that blackout caused by failure of transmission lines and interconnection infrastructure that required ALL power generation to go offline because there was no demand (the power must be consumed)?
     
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  5. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    My understanding is transmission lines were destroyed to neighboring states. So power could not be brought in. However, our Aussi members may have more details.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #5 bwilson4web, Nov 24, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2017
  6. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Well my understanding is South Australia shut down its coal plants in anticipation of renewables and now they have a heckuva a crisis of escalating elec costs. They cannot use the coal as it has all been long-term contracted to China.

    Give Musk credit for trying to help, but they got a big prob that Musk knows about.
     
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  7. davids45

    davids45 Active Member

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    G'day,

    South Australia (one of our states) had one, small, coal-fired power station using poor quality coal from Leigh Creek (SA) but this was closed some years ago and their power is/was delivered via the national grid from adjacent states (Victoria and NSW) that burn brown (Vic) or black (NSW) coal as well as these two states having a large availability of hydro-power as they share our pitiful attempt at mountains that sometimes get snow that fills dams. Still, we don't have earthquakes of any size either.

    Without coal of any useful sort, SA is going renewable by necessity, mostly wind and solar. Nuclear not an option politically.
    All our black coal of value is in NSW and Queensland (the exportable stuff) while Victoria has only low-calorific-value brown coal, but masses of the stuff, and the power stations to burn it (although a big old one closed recently adding to the messy politics of the SA problem).

    The recent kerfuffle was indeed initiated by a severe storm in SA that took out critical transmission lines and the grid/administrative system failed to handle the situation competently. Then state and federal politicians got involved in a blame-game, to raise the chaos to an even higher level.

    But it's good to hear that the SA Musk battery plant is completed, regardless of its actual ability to totally handle another 'storm'.
    And Elon can now go back to making cars?

    David S.
     
  8. Prodigyplace

    Prodigyplace Senior Member

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    Was Musk’s battery plant prioritizing this project over Model 3 battery production?
     
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  9. RCO

    RCO Senior Member

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    And I thought you were a true believer! (Chuckle, chuckle)!
     
  10. William Redoubt

    William Redoubt Senior Member

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    No doubt the battery plant will be used to power the homes of the rich and powerful when the next outage occurs.
     
  11. mikefocke

    mikefocke Prius v Three 2012, Avalon 2011

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    Just whose responsibility is it for the power grid anyway? Since the power companies get the capital costs and maintenance costs baked into their rates, is it not them? Yes government can allow rate adjustments, participate in bring together unaffected power companies resources in time of local disaster, etc. But ultimately it is the power company that provides the proposal of how much investment to make that ultimately proposes the rates, the rate approval agency who like to look good by keeping the rates low and the customers who demand the lowest rate that deny the proper investment in infrastructure for the future. IOW, it is us cheap voters.

    I didn't run my business that way nor did I run my personal life that way. But others do. A neighbor was asking me about how much he needed in income for retirement the other day. The one who has a mortgage, a second mortgage, three car loans, a mortgage on a cabin in the mountains, a boat and a few toys. A year away from retirement and he has all these avoidable costs (and a financial advisor who is telling him that he can afford all these things).

    Sadly, it is any polititian's or manager's lot to be criticized for investing (be it in product development, training, education, roads or whatever) while the critic who succeeds them will eventually reap the rewards of that investment. It goes in cycles.
     
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  12. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    And from BYD: BYD 6 MWh Energy Storage System In Massachusetts

    “Green Charge’s first installation of BYD batteries will be for the recently announced six-megawatt-hour system adjacent to ENGIE’s Mt. Tom Solar farm to serve Holyoke Gas & Electric in western Massachusetts.

    Designed to optimize intermittent solar energy and contribute to rate stabilization for Holyoke Gas & Electric customers over the next 20 years, this energy storage project will be the largest utility-scale energy storage installation in Massachusetts.”
    . . .
    the most astounding BYD achievement to date is the 27,000+ electric buses now in service around the world (but mostly still in China).

    Wow! Another company that can do more than one thing at a time.

    Bob Wilson
     
  13. Prodigyplace

    Prodigyplace Senior Member

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    Companies do that all the time. Many cannot do them all well at the same time.
     
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  14. RCO

    RCO Senior Member

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    Huh! Over here, some companies can't even do one thing very well. Correction they do charge well for the poor service. :mad:
     
  15. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    They flipped the switch:
    Tesla just switched on the world's biggest lithium-ion battery - Business Insider

    HORNSDALE, Australia (Reuters) - Tesla Inc switched on the world's biggest lithium ion battery on Friday in time to feed Australia's shaky power grid for the first day of summer, meeting a promise by Elon Musk to build it in 100 days or give it free.

    "South Australia is now leading the world in dispatchable renewable energy," state Premier Jay Weatherill said at the official launch at the Hornsdale wind farm, owned by private French firm Neoen.

    Tesla won a bid in July to build the 129-megawatt-hour battery for South Australia, which expanded in wind power far quicker than the rest of the country, but has suffered a string of blackouts over the past 18 months.

    In a politically charged debate, opponents of the state's renewables push have argued that the battery is a "Hollywood solution" in a country that still relies on fossil fuels, mainly coal, for two-thirds of its electricity.

    Supporters, however, say it will help stabilize the grid in a state that now gets more than 40 percent of its electricity from wind energy, but needs help when the wind dies down.

    YEAAA!!!!

    For tech-heads: Tesla 100MW battery flexes muscles early this morning – delivers 70MWh of ‘stored wind power’, shows off fast switching | Electrek

    [​IMG]

    For those who follow electro-political issues: Batteries Included: Jay Weatherill on moving past the energy crisis - The Adelaide Review

    Another Aussi source: 'History in the making': Tesla switches on world's largest battery in SA

    Bob Wilson
     
    #15 bwilson4web, Dec 1, 2017
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2017
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  16. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    How does south Australia achieve 50% renewables? all solar + wind, or is hydro in the mix?
     
  17. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    I don't know, but - isn't that like asking whether Ford is prioritizing some of its Communications business, or Automotive or finance over the other? Don't most companies segregate their various business dealings? Aren't Tesla's solar mfg & battery mfg separate entities? not sure what the point of the 'business-priority' inquiry question is - i guess.
    But anyway, seems like there's some hubbub here, making this all about one particular blackout, whereas the article references blackouts/ brownout being all too frequent down undah. is there some notion that solar doesn't help many of those kinds of power challenges?
    IOW - so what if the latest blackout isn't helped by solar ... is that supposed to be a rationale for NOT benefiting /needing the megawatts of solar? .... because someone referenced the wrong power failure? Between that, & complaining about, "it's not enough power to make a difference!".... i'm not sure which is worse.
    Oy

    Tangentially, hey! if enough solar/wind comes online down undah, Australia can sell more of its Brown coal to Japan, & Australia can then make tons of money reforming it (right there in Australia of course) into hydrogen, so that Japan can claim their fuel cell cars are clean in their country. & so what if Australia has mountains of coal ash from the process. and never mind the CO2 released while you're at it. Maybe while they're at it, Japan can wag their "finger of Shame" at Australia for being involved in such a dirty process. Oh the irony.
    ;)
    .
     
    #17 hill, Dec 1, 2017
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2017
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  18. Prodigyplace

    Prodigyplace Senior Member

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    I understood that battery manufacturing issues were hampering Model 3 production. That is why I asked the business priority question. Both use the batteries produced by Tesla.
     
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  19. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    o i c .... I believe the model 3 uses a newer/different type of a cell then the prior Tesla carss, & I don't think those new cells are used in the storage systems iirc.
    .
     
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  20. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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