powerpack
Latest
Tesla has applied for a license to become a UK energy provider
Tesla has applied for a licence to become an energy provider in the UK, according to the Telegraph. That means it may bring it’s lithium-ion PowerPack battery technology to Britain, much as it did with its 100 megawatt Hornsdale PowerPack installation in south Australia.
Tesla's Osaka station Powerpack is its largest storage system in Asia
Tesla has built another Powerpack system in record time, this time at Osaka train station in Japan, where it will be used as emergency backup and to reduce peak energy demand. According to the company on Twitter, the 42 Powerpack units will provide enough energy to safely move a train and its passengers for up to 30 minutes to the nearest station in the event of a power failure.
Volkswagen will use Tesla batteries at its charging stations
Volkswagen announced today that it will be using Tesla Powerpack battery storage units on more than 100 of its Electrify America charging stations in the US, according to Reuters. The battery packs, which will be installed over the course of 2019, will be placed in regions where there is a higher concentration of electric vehicle owners in order to provide power during heavy charging hours. The packs will primarily be placed at charging stations on the west coast.
Tesla says it’s being underpaid because its batteries are too fast
It looks like Tesla's batteries are too fast for their own good. As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, the company claims it's not being properly paid for the electricity its South Australia battery farm is generating for the country's power grid. And Tesla says its because its batteries supply electricity faster than the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) can register. The current standards are based on response rates for fossil fuel generators, but Tesla's batteries can respond much more quickly than they do. "Tesla estimates that the Hornsdale Power Reserve battery has delivered 30 to 40 percent of its services to frequency markets without being paid due to existing AEMO technical specifications being written based on fossil fuel generation assets," Tesla said.
Tesla's latest smart power grid experiment begins in Canada
Tesla's experiments with smart power grids are headed further North. Canada's Nova Scotia Power recently finished setting up a pilot project that will use a combination of Tesla's Powerwall 2 home batteries and utility-grade Powerpack batteries to create a more reliable wind power system. The Elmsdale-based Intelligent Feeder Project fills gaps in the electrical grid by topping up the Powerpacks whenever a nearby wind turbine system generates excess power, and delivering that stored energy to local homes (including those with Powerwall 2 batteries) when there's an outage or the turbine system falls short.
Tesla's giant battery farm is now live in South Australia
With a little lot of help from Tesla, Australia is now home to the world's largest lithium-ion battery. Back in March, Elon Musk told Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes that he could create a 100MWh battery storage farm within 100 days -- otherwise, his company would do the job for free. The Twitter pledge was in response to ongoing power shortages in South Australia, which were causing blackouts and political uncertainty about the country's push toward renewable energy sources. The batteries were delivered and installed before the summer -- well ahead of Musk's self-imposed deadline -- and today, they were switched on for the first time.
Tesla completes its giant Australian Powerpack battery on time
Tesla has completed its 100 megawatt Powerpack battery backup system in South Australia within 100 days (easily), as Elon Musk had promised. That means the company essentially won the "bet," and won't be on the hook for the entire cost of the project, estimated at $50 million. More importantly, it means that some 30,000 homes in South Australia will have a power backup in case there's no breeze at the Hornsdale Wind Farm located about two hours from Adelaide.
Tesla Powerpacks will supply Nantucket’s backup power
Tesla has been boosting power grids all over the world with its Powerpack battery systems and now its energy storage products are heading to Nantucket, Electrek reports. The island will host over 200 Powerpacks that will serve as backup power and grid stabilizers for Nantucket's 11,000 permanent residents and nearly 40,000 seasonal visitors.
Puerto Rico governor will discuss Tesla solar systems with Elon Musk
Following hurricanes Irma and Maria, millions of Puerto Rico residents were left without electricity and it's expected to take months for power to be restored. Well one person mused on Twitter whether Elon Musk could help out by rebuilding the island's electricity grid with solar and battery systems and Musk responded that it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.
Tesla is building world’s largest backup battery in Australia
After blackouts left 1.7 million residents without electricity, Elon Musk famously guaranteed that Tesla could supply 100 megawatts of battery storage in 100 days. The company has announced it will do just that by installing a Powerpack battery storage system that can run over 30,000 homes. The 100-megawatt project "will be the highest power battery system in the world by a factor of three," tweeted CEO Elon Musk. It will back up the 315 megawatt Hornsdale Wind Farm, charging during low energy usage and providing electricity for peak hours.
US utility offers clients cheap Tesla batteries for grid backup
For the first time, a power utility has teamed up with Tesla to use its battery packs for extra grid power during peak usage times. Vermont's Green Mountain Power (GMP) is not only installing Tesla's industrial Powerpacks on utility land, it's also subsidizing home Powerwall 2s for up to 2,000 customers. Rather than firing up polluting diesel generators, the utility can use them to provide electricity around the state. At night, when power usage is low, they're charged back up again.
Tesla's new solar energy station will power Hawaii at night
Renewable energy supplies are great because they produce power without filling the air with pollution. Yet, once the sun goes down solar panels become pretty useless. But Tesla and Hawaii have a solution that'll use the sun's rays both day and night using Powerpacks built at the Gigafactory.
An all-electric supercar, and more in the week that was
In a major win for clean energy, Tesla just unveiled the biggest battery storage facility on the planet. It's made from 396 Powerpacks, and it can store 80 megawatt-hours of electricity -- enough to power 2,500 households for an entire day. Meanwhile, the world's most powerful wind turbine shattered the world record for energy produced in 24 hours. Researchers in Scotland developed a groundbreaking system that uses sunlight to purify water in rural India. And SunGlacier developed a solar machine that harvests fresh H2O from thin air.
Tesla's Powerpacks are now lighting up California's grid
"Batteries are boring when they are successful." That's Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel, speaking on Monday to an audience of reporters, employees and government officials sitting in the middle of the new 20-megawatt Mira Loma energy storage station in Ontario, California. Behind him, row upon row of Tesla Powerpacks and industrial inverters filled the fenced-in 1.5-acre lot. Those gleaming white battery boxes, though boring looking, are capable of powering up to 15,000 homes for four hours during peak times, or roughly 2,500 homes for an entire day. This is an important development indeed, because it means utilities won't have to fire up fossil fuel-powered stations to fill the energy gaps.
Tesla runs an entire island on solar power
Now that Tesla has officially acquired SolarCity, it's not wasting any time showing what the combined entity can do. Tesla has revealed that it's running the island of Ta'u (in American Samoa) on a solar energy microgrid that, at 1.4 megawatts, can cover "nearly 100 percent" of electrical needs. It's not just the 5,328 solar panels that are key -- it's the 60 Tesla Powerpacks that offer 6 megawatt-hours of energy storage. While Ta'u is normally very sunny, the packs can keep it running for three days without sunlight. They don't have to worry about a cloudy day leading to blackouts.
Tesla unveils its solar roof and Powerwall 2
At Universal Studios in Los Angeles tonight, Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed off the company's solar roof-top panels, a new $5,500 Powerwall 2 high-capacity residential battery pack, and the Powerpack 2 for businesses.
Tesla batteries will help power California office buildings
Tesla is about to prove that its energy storage batteries aren't just meant for saving money (and possibly, the environment) at home. The Irvine Company plans to outfit office buildings across California with Tesla battery farms that, in an initial phase, will both reduce electricity demand at peak hours and give Southern California Edison up to 10 megawatts of reserve power. That's enough to light up 10,000 homes, folks. Up to 24 buildings in Irvine will get the upgrade in this first wave, and there are hints of more in the long run.
Tesla wants its Powerwall to save the grid and your bank account
Our lust for electricity is insatiable. At night we connect a hydra of wires to our phones, computers, smartwatches and tablets. They sip at the electrons being pumped into our homes, filling their batteries to be ready for another day without being tethered to a wall. Tesla wants your house to be ready. Ready for power outages and heat waves. The company says its Powerwall home battery system can untether your home from the power grid for a few hours, which might not sound like much, but could have huge implications for the way we power our lives.
Cobra Electronics demos power pack that can jump-start your car
Cobra Electronics is a big player in the automotive world, largely thanks to its line of radar detectors. What a lot of people don't know, however, is that the company has also been dabbling with products that jump-start your car. At this year's CES, Cobra is introducing the JumPack, which it says is a game-changing device for jump-starting -- an odd-sounding statement, no doubt, but we have to agree. The 7,500mAh portable JumPack (CPP 7500) looks suspiciously like your run-of-the-mill external smartphone/tablet charger, and it's the smallest jump-start power pack we've come across. It features a 200A starting current and gets up to a peak current of 400A, which is enough to give your car's battery a few jumps -- given that it only takes three to four hours to recharge, it should be more than enough to manage those unfortunate situations in a lonely parking lot. It also comes with a built-in flashlight as well as USB output (2.1A) in case you want to give your smartphone a power boost. When it makes its way to stores in March or April, you'll be able to pick one up for $130. Sean Cooper contributed to this post.
CES 2013: Nectar's fuel cell pack claims to store up to two weeks of extra power
The Nectar mobile power system had its debut earlier this week at CES' Unveiled pre-show, and if nothing else, it's an impressive boast: The system claims to provide up to two weeks of power for your devices (including the iPhone) from a pack that fits very easily in a pocket. It's a pretty wild idea -- obviously, we haven't gotten a chance yet to really run the device through its paces just yet, but if the Nectar can do what the company says it can, it could be a very handy addition to your travel kit. The way it works is that you buy the core base unit for US$299, and then you can pick up extra fuel cell units for just $10 each. Use up the included fuel cell, and you'll have to replace it, but that much power should definitely be handy if you need it all while out and about. Other fuel cell tech like this can be heavy and bulky, but Nectar is designed to be both very portable and very powerful. The units will be available for sale at Brookstone later on this year, and we'll try to grab one then to see just how these claims stack up under trial. In the meantime, Engadget has a nice gallery of the unit showing just what it looks like in person.
