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06-29-2022, 08:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-29-2022, 08:49 PM by Space Karen.)
Quote:Tesla Megapacks are on their way to Hawaii in order to create a giant new energy storage system that is about to replace the state’s last remaining coal power plant.
Hawaii aims to reach 100% green energy by 2045 and already has the highest amount of solar capacity deployed per capita. However, in order to handle all that renewable energy, the state needs to balance it with energy storage capacity since the sun doesn’t always shine.
Tesla has been deploying batteries in Hawaii for years in order to help toward that goal. The company works with Hawaiian Electric on giant new battery systems and on a virtual power plant using Powerwalls.
Now the Tesla Megapacks are coming to Hawaii, and they will be used to retire the state’s last coal power plant.
Once completed, the Kapolei Energy Storage facility (KES) will become one of the largest battery systems in the world with a capacity of 185 megawatts/565 megawatt-hours. It is a project in partnership with Plus Power and Hawaiian Electric – the former decided to use Tesla Megapacks to power the system.
Megapack is Tesla’s largest energy storage solution – a container-size battery system with a capacity of up to 3 MWh. 158 Megapacks are on their way to Hawaii’s Oahu to build the project.
The goal is to have the project operational by September 2022 when Hawaii’s last remaining coal plant, which is located just down the road from KES, is expected to be retired.
The coal power plant is used to maintain grid frequency – something Tesla’s energy storage products have proven capable of doing – and that’s what KES is aiming to do along with absorbing excess solar power during the day and discharging during the evening.
Plus Power’s lead developer Bob Rudd said at a ground blessing ceremony last year (via Canary Media):
Quote:“Here, today, on Oahu, Plus Power and Hawaiian Electric are sending a postcard from the future. I’m certain that someday we’ll all look back, when there are dozens of projects just like KES on the mainland and all across the world, and we’ll think, ‘We were there. Hawaii showed the world how to do it first.’ “
Plus Power also says that the Tesla Megapack will act as a “black-start” system to jump-start the island’s electric grid if it gets shut down by any calamity. They are calling it the “Ultimate pacemaker for the grid.”
For Tesla, it is quite a large project with 565 MWh of Megapacks to deploy, but the company has deployed larger systems, like the recently commissioned Moss Landing project, which has a capacity of 730 MWh and is planned for an expansion to over 1GWh.
https://electrek.co/2022/06/27/tesla-meg...oal-plant/
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06-29-2022, 09:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-29-2022, 09:46 PM by microage97.)
I hope they have plenty of water on hand to put out these notorious fire starters.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-me...lia-2021-8
4 days and 150 fire fighters to put out......
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Coal power plants emit arsenic poison in exhaust fumes.
Which contaminate oceans and soil.
Burning and exploding batteries could be the better option.
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4 days, 150 firefighters and a bunch of water is vastly preferable to burning fossil fuels.
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The Tesla Megapack is a battery - it stores energy. It does not produce it like the coal plant does. What energy producing sources are going to replace the coal burning plant and at what cost for the electricity?
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these notorious fire starters.
Yes, because safe, flammable clean coal could never start on fire like a battery:
https://www.google.com/search?q=has+a+coal+plant+ever+started+on+fire&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
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Oahu creates excess power during non-peak times. This previously wasted power can now be stored and deployed during peak times thereby eliminating the need for so-called 'Peaker' plants like the afore mentioned coal plant. It's not about producing more power, it's about wisely using the power that we already make.
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07-06-2022, 01:35 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-06-2022, 01:36 AM by Space Karen.)
(07-06-2022, 01:07 AM)terracore Wrote: Sand doesn't catch fire and it's cheaper to mine than lithium.
https://www.sciencetimes.com/article...-installed.htm
Broken link ^
Fixed link (?) :
https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/38...talled.htm
Its a variation on a gravity battery.
It can't compete with the energy density, efficiency or fast charge time of a lithium battery.
It might do ok in some niche areas although I don't think market investors would finance it.
Only governments and states will subsidize it and experiment with it. Its not ready for prime time.
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Power plants do not "dispose of" excess energy when supply exceeds demand. The smaller peaker plants ramp up and down as needed although every engine has a band of maximum efficiency and operating at low throttle setting is outside that band so is less efficient. The same is true for the large base load plants to a degree. They simply can't adjust output quickly enough, hence the need for small peaker plants.
Another issue is that in addition to being more efficient at high throttle, engines are also cleaner at full design load. You get more useful electricity for less fuel per kWh while producing less pollution per kWh if you don't have to throttle back and idle. This is very analogous to driving in stop and go traffic. These batteries will serve the same function as the batteries in a hybrid electric car. The fuel burning generators will still come on when required but will operate at peak efficiency and will shut off when they would otherwise have to operate inefficiently. In addition the batteries will also allow the integration of surges of renewable energy into the grid at the comparatively random intervals that are a fact of life for renewable energy. Rooftop solar probably produces as many kWh per day as the coal plant but does so in a curve starting and ending at zero as the sun is just rising and setting and peaking at noon, whereas the demand curve peaks peaks at sunrise and sunset and is lower in between. I don't know how much the coal plant actually ramped up and down but I know it would take hours to do so.
