Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and renewable energy developer Gaelectric have announced a joint test project to evaluate utility-scale storage to facilitate the integration of renewables onto the grid.
The 1MW energy storage project, claimed to be the first utility-scale energy storage project of its type in Ireland, will be connected to the grid in 2016. The partnership will see the two companies develop a pipeline of many battery projects in Ireland to help inform Tesla Energy explore opportunities in residential and commercial energy storage applications.
Tesla has chosen Ireland as its initial European energy storage test bed because of its “renewable energy targets and favourable regulatory framework”. However, the partnership will see the companies investigate other suitable European markets.
Commenting on the company’s partnership with Tesla, Gaelectric head of energy storage, Keith McGrane, said: “The accelerating pace of storage technology development and its application to how we generate, use and store power is truly astounding. Much of these developments are around incorporating greater amounts of renewable power while protecting the stability of our transmission systems and controlling costs. Tesla is the vanguard for the revolution that is currently underway.”
Tesla’s energy storage devices use the same lithium-ion technology batteries that the manufacturer uses for its range of electric vehicles, which will soon be manufactured at the company’s so-called Gigafactory in America in partnership with Panasonic.
The company claims that its energy storage devices represent a “critical step in the mission to enable zero emission power generation”. Tesla’s utility-scale batteries come in 100kWh blocks, these modular systems can be grouped together to scale from 500kWh to over 10MWh. Tesla foresees these huge batteries being used for peak shaving, load shifting and demand response.
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