tesla’s battery revolution just reached critical mass

Tesla Motors
I made a big bet that millions of small batteries could be put together to help get fossil fuels out of the grid.
This idea is powerful-
A factory used to help justify the company\'s $5 billion near Nev Reno. —
But so far, batterieshave only appeared in a handful of real grids
Pilot scale.
Changed this week.
Three large battery storage plants
Built by Tesla, AES
, And Altagas Ltd. —
At about the same time, all people will officially live in Southern California.
Any of these projects will be the biggest battery storage facility ever.
They installed 15% battery storage devices in total. wide last year.
The ribbon will be cut off and executives will bow.
But Tesla Chief Technology Officer J. , the isa revolution that has just begunB.
Straw Bell said in an interview on Friday.
\"It is sometimes difficult to understand the speed at which all this is going,\" he said . \".
\"Our storage capacity is growing at the rate that humans can.
\"The new battery project is designed to deal with fossils --fuel disaster—
The gas leak in Aliso Canyon is close to the Porter Ranch near Los Angeles.
Before it was sealed in last February, it released thousands of tons of methane into the air.
Southern California Edison followed (SCE)
To mitigate the risk of a power outage in the winter, the energy storage transaction was hastily deployed.
There is no time to waste: all the projects launched this week are completed within 6 months, an unprecedented feat.
Tesla\'s operation was particularly flexible, completing a project that took several years in just three months.
\"Some teams work there 24 hours a day, live in construction trailers, and do commissioning work at two in the morning,\" Straubel said . \".
\"It\'s like we need to change the pace of the world.
Battery storage industry-
If wind and solar power dominate the grid forever, this is a key part of the plan --
The history of less than ten years is still relatively small.
Until recently, the price of the battery was many times more expensive than the natural gas \"peaker\" plant, which was launched to meet the surge in demand at night and in the morning.
But the price of lithium
The ion battery dropped quickly.
Almost half have passed since the 2014 s.
Electric vehicles are largely responsible, demand increases, and need to make new sizes for the same batteries used in grid storage.
California has asked its utilities to start testing batteries by adding more than one battery.
It reached 32 gigawatts by 2020.
With this in mind: In 2016, the global storage market was less than Gigabit Watts.
California\'s goal is considerable, but it dwarfs Tesla\'s ambition to be single.
With a 2020 s-15 gigawatts of battery storage time per year
Several nuclear power plants sufficient to provide value to the grid during peak demand times.
However, not everyone is so optimistic.
\"I don\'t believe it,\" said Yayoi Sekine, Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst in charge of battery technology.
The market is \"faster than ever, but it hasn\'t reached the size of gigawatts yet.
\"The battery cost and profitability of utilities are difficult to assess.
Companies are reluctant to give up their pricing data and the fees are highly variable.
Still, the battery plant covers a much smaller area than natural gas.
They do not pollute power plants, and their immediate response is more valuable than any other technology.
In the case of a small but increasing number, the battery is already the most economical choice.
But according to BNEF\'s analysis, to a large extent, the cost of new projects will need to be reduced by half in order to achieve a larger range of profitability in California, which will not happen in the next decade.
The total installation cost of a battery plant needs to drop to about $275 per kilowatt hour.
While Tesla declined to provide price data, the same-scale Altagas project is expected to cost at least $40 million, or $500 per kWh.
BNEF\'s Sekine says it is possible that with the significant expansion of Tesla\'s Renault business, the company will be able to build new pricing floors that will force the industry to follow suit.
Even this week\'s announcement is still early.
Tesla\'s battery could take a few more years.
Straubel said that the materials stored for sale were sufficient to separate from the sales of cars filed on a quarterly basis.
But the battery Festival is coming, and the battery festival at the Natural Gas peaker factory is already numbered.
This is the forecast of John zahurankk, president of AES battery storage.
Zahurankk, one of the pioneers in energy storage, pieced together profitable advantages
The case storage project was 10 times higher than today\'s battery price since 2008.
AES has completed the installation and is conducting a final test on a 30 MW/120 MW-hour plant that is larger than Tesla\'s 20 MW/80 MW.
AES is still working on longer
The term project will be five times the size of the Tesla project by 2021.
It was an unimaginable scale ten years ago.
\"This is my fifth time doing the world\'s largest energy storage project, and every time people tell me, \'This is a test, \'zahurankk said in an interview on Friday: \'This is really a test . \".
\"The next big test is how we can scale that up.
\"The biggest reason that makes Tesla and AES different is that Tesla is building components of its storage units at Renault, including batteries with partners Panasonic, modules and inverters.
Tesla says this vertical integration will help reduce costs and create a seamless system.
Dealing with a diverse supply chain allows it to seek the cheapest price and the best technology in the market, AES says.
The same argument happened on electricity-
Tesla has made unprecedented parts in the automotive industry. house.
Currently, for projects that are not limited by space, emissions or urgency, the natural gas peaker plant is still winning the price, said Ron Nichols, president of ce, california utilities are responsible for most of the largest battery storage contracts.
But he said the situation could change over the next five years.
\"Can a lot of batteries take over in the long run? Asked Nichols.
\"It will take us a few hours to make sure. ”—
With the assistance of Dana Hull