Tesla has completed a massive, 55,000-panel solar farm on the Hawaiian island of Kauai that will allow them to experiment with medium-term energy storage at a utility scale. Hooked up to the farm are 272 of the company’s lithium Powerpacks, which are capable of storing of combined 52 megawatt-hours of power.
The project is the largest of its kind installed by Tesla since its $2 billion acquisition of panel installer SolarCity Corp last November, and its location in Hawaii is not a coincidence; the state has the highest electric rates in the United States, and has set goals of eliminating all non-renewable power sources by 2045.
The Tesla facility is estimated to cut the Kauai’s diesel and petroleum consumption by about 1.6 million gallons per year. As a result, approximately 44 percent of the island’s energy will now come from renewable sources. The Powerpack system will also be the first solar operation to reliably supply power 24/7.
The system is similar to an even larger, 396-battery storage system installed by the company in Southern California this January. Tesla founder Elon Musk has claimed that the entire United States could potentially be powered by anothe 160 or so of these plants.
News via Bloomberg.
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