Elon Musk's Powerpacks grab world headlines but Riverland battery to be Australia's biggest
The concept for the Lyon Group's solar battery project at Morgan in the Riverland.
Australia’s biggest battery — part of the $1 billion solar project planned by the Lyon Group for Morgan in South Australia’s Riverland in 2018 – has been overshadowed by the international attention on the world’s largest lithium ion battery (100MW/129MWh) installed by Tesla, in tandem with a wind farm by French company Neoen, at Hornsdale near Jamestown.
These projects are adding world leadership in battery storage to South Australia’s national leadership in renewable energy. The visit by Tesla’s billionaire boss Elon Musk to the South Australian project added to global media coverage, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Telegraph in London. South Australia also featured on the world’s biggest TV networks, including CNN and BBC, and websites including The Guardian and The Huffington Post.
The global coverage has continued with the performance of the Tesla Powerpacks near Jamestown in the national energy grid. The speed of Tesla batteries’ response in providing backup power in the grid has beaten much bigger power plants. This speed – over size and duration – is the lithium batteries’ strength. (Example: when Victoria’s Lang Yoy power plant A3 unit tripped, Hornsdale power reserve in South Australia beat everyone by injecting 7.3MW into the national electricity grid in just 140 milliseconds.)
Solar/battery power in South Australia will be further strengthened in 2018 by the Lyon Group’s other Kingfisher project in Roxby Downs with about 800,000 solar panels linked to shipping container-sized batteries.
A $30 million 30-megawatt (MW) battery will be built by network provider ElectraNet at the Dalrymple substation, north of Yorketown. ElectraNet will lease the battery to an energy retailer. The federal government will contribute up to $12 million to the project via the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
The state's biggest solar photo-voltaic plant, on the outskirts of Whyalla, is aiming for 150MW of solar generation. Its develop SSE, has submitted an expression of interest to the state government to provide up to 100MW of battery storage.
