The world's biggest battery is officially on in South Australia, allowing Tesla founder Elon Musk to meet his promise of building it within 100 days or it would be free, according to The Telegraph.
More importantly for the residents of South Australia, they hope the Tesla's Powerpack system can begin to solve some of the massive energy problems experienced over past summers plagued by blackouts, noted the publication.
The powerpack, located in the rural town of Jamestown north of Adelaide, is connected to a wind farm operated by French energy firm Neoen, was switched on early Friday as temperatures started to rise, The Telegraph wrote.
The state suffered a total blackout in 2016 following an "unprecedented storm," according to the publication. The powerpack reportedly can power more than 30,000 homes with electricity, The Telegraph reported.
"This means that, for the first time, clean and affordable wind energy can be dispatched to the grid 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whether the wind is blowing or not, improving system reliability," a statement from South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill's office stated.
"Tesla powerpacks, connected to Neoen's Hornsdale windfarm, are now operational and delivering power to the National Energy Market, providing system security services to South Australia. The ability to dispatch into the system when needed, also opens up the opportunity for Hornsdale Power Reserve to sign competitive long term contracts with medium-sized business directly," the statement continued.
Musk tweeted about the success of meeting deadline last week.
The rest of the country will be looking at the Musk's battery and how in performs in South Australia with the country overall facing an energy crisis with a system that is "among the world's costliest and dirtiest," and "annoyingly unreliable," wrote Australian Financial Review in October.
Newsweek wrote that a 1,600 megawatt coal plant closure in Victoria earlier this year put more pressure on Australia's gas industry, which faced huge lay-offs, rising prices, and gas shortages.
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