While most of Tesla’s fans are currently focused on their main product – their cars – there’s been a lot of development on another important front related to the company, their power storage units. After much anticipation, the company has officially turned on the currently largest battery substation in the world.
Called the Powerpack 2, the substation is capable of storing up to 80 MWh of electricity, a significant capacity compared to what’s currently available across the globe. The entire facility is comprised of Tesla’s own Powerpack 2 battery units.
What are Tesla planning to do with all that stored power? We’ve seen some interesting reports explaining what could theoretically be achieved with this kind of capacity, including some amazing feats like powering thousands of households for a single day, but reports indicate that this is not the main intention of the company with regards to this facility.
Its primary purpose will actually be to contain the power generate from solar generators and wind farms, ensuring that it’s properly stored and not wasted. This is a common problem with these types of installations, as it’s not rare for them to suffer significant power losses when storage is not properly accounted for.
There are also rumors that Tesla might have even bigger plans in the works and that we might hear more interesting announcements about their developments soon, but so far we haven’t seen any indication that this could actually be true. It’s important to remember that Tesla is one of the most speculated companies on the market right now, and people love to discuss rumors about their business left and right.
Regardless, their impact is undoubted and we’ve seen various great developments coming out of their doors. The latest activation of the Powerpack 2 was a great move not only for the benefits it will bring to the power grid, but also for the fact that it will work as a motivator for other companies to push forward with their own developments in this field.
Indeed, we’ve been seeing more and more attention towards large-capacity battery substations, with more reports of companies setting up their own at various points. So far, these seem to be mostly focused in North America, but we expect the trend to grow at an exponential rate along with the popularity of electric vehicles themselves.
And that’s an important note to make by itself – electric cars are getting more and more positive press lately, and we expect this trend to continue at an even faster pace. Tesla have contributed a lot to that, and their next developments in that field should make the concept even more accessible to drivers curious to try it out.
There’s no doubt that developments like the completion of the Powerpack 2 are all going to add to the big picture as well, and we are curious to see how Tesla are going to unfold their plans further on as they move deeper into the industry.
It’s also interesting to note that Tesla have been a bit secretive about the exact details of the recent contract they were awarded for the substation. It’s understandable why they would want to keep the finer print under the table though, so we don’t expect them to be very open about their current deals. However, the company definitely doesn’t miss an opportunity to reap the marketing benefits of announcing another major product to the world.