South Australia is now on the world map after Tesla’s senior executive said the Australian state was “the future” for renewable energy technologies.
Baglino also referred to data gathered from 5000 customers in South Australia to tout the benefits of the company’s electrical products.
In 2016, Tesla created its first and then-biggest “Powerwall 2 batteries,” known as the Hornsdale Power Reserve, to power more than 5,000 South Australian homes. The system went into operation in November 2017 and was reported to have “a positive impact on the local network” in its first 100 days.
The company has also used the “achievements” in South Australia to exponentially increase stationary battery storage to at least one terawatt-hour a year and beyond.
Musk Unveil’s Renewables Plan
Tesla’s Investor Day event in Texas was where CEO Elon Musk unveiled his company’s plan to become the leading global driver in shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The plan, known as “Master Plan 3,” is expected to cost the company approximately $10 trillion.“I really wanted today to be not just about Tesla investors who own stock, but really anyone who is an investor in Earth,” Musk said.
“There is a clear path to a sustainable-energy Earth. It doesn’t require destroying natural habitats. It doesn’t require us to be austere and stop using electricity and be in the cold or anything.”
Musk said Tesla plans to construct new car and battery cell factories and produce more cars per year at its existing factories.
Meanwhile, Tesla says South Australia has a key role in using battery storage to replace fossil fuels “one plant at a time,” where the company plans to ultimately reach a grid on 100 percent renewables.
“We have one grid operator that’s utilising virtual machine mode, and they say they will not operate their grid at 100 percent renewables unless they have this feature unless they have virtual machine mode working,” said Mike Snyder, the head of Tesla Megapack.
“They tried (without VMM), and it didn’t work very well. Virtual machine is like synthetic inertia where you turn the battery power plant … through software … into behaving like it’s a giant spinning machine, literally.
“And that inertia stabilises the grid. You don’t need a giant spinning machine. You don’t need a huge fossil fuel power plant or a giant hydro turbine.
Company Touts Cost Cost-Benefit of Electric Products
Baglino said the average monthly cost for its South Australian customers was $140.But this cost was reduced to $61 per month if customers had solar, a Powerwall, and proposed software operations that worked in an “intelligent” way.
“That’s what happened in South Australia last year. This represents the future of South Australia, in particular, where solar and wind supplied 70 percent of South Australia’s energy in 2022,” Baglino said.
“That compares to 30 percent in Texas, and 35 percent in California, but this is an indication of where this is all headed in both centralised and distributed storage resources, providing the key to unlocking fully renewable grids.”
Economic Appeal Varies
Damien Moyse, CEO of Renew, a sustainability nonprofit, said that while solar with battery systems are economically attractive to Australian households, the appeal depends on location, household type, and energy usage, reported Choice.“It’s fair to say more homes would now be able to achieve a 10-year payback [than in 2015], but a lot of homes still won’t,” he says. “The variation is huge … with larger, higher-usage houses getting better value out of a battery,” Moyse said.
Meanwhile, battery prices haven’t fallen as fast as solar panels, which fell less 95 percent in less than 10 years.
“While the cost of the battery technology has dropped significantly internationally, other costs associated with battery installation in Australia, including labour and other components, remain relatively expensive,” Moyse said.
