Tesla's Big Battery in South Australia delivers stunning profits

[bob10]

The Tesla big battery in South Australia – officially known as the Hornsdale Power Reserve – delivered a windfall profit to its Paris-based owner Neoen in the first half of 2020, largely due to the key role it and other big batteries played when a massive storm blew down the state’s main link to Victoria.
Tesla big battery in South Australia delivers stunning windfall profits | RenewEconomy (https://reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-big-battery-in-south-australia-delivers-stunning-windfall-profits-77644/)

[bob10]

Say hullo to a smarter South Australian grid, ready, or not.

After a decade of growth in rooftop solar, South Australia is the first gigawatt scale power system in the world in which rooftop solar will inevitably be able to meet all its power needs at certain times.


Say hello to a smarter South Australian grid, ready or not! | One Step Off The Grid (https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/say-hello-to-a-smarter-south-australian-grid-ready-or-not/)

[bob10]

Western Australia to build 100mw big batter yon the States main grid.
Premier Mark McGowan says the battery would likely be the second biggest in Australia once complete in 2022z, although it would largely depend on the status of other big battery projects elsewhere, including the mooted replacement for the Liddell coal generator in NSW.
The ACT Labor government has committed to a 200MW big battery if it is re-elected this month, although it has not revealed how many hours storage it was looking at, while AGL is looking at a 150MW initial battery at Liddell, again without the hours of storage specified, and Neoen and Mondo have proposed a 600MW big battery in Victoria to help upgrade the operating capacity of the main link to NSW.



West Australia to build 100MW big battery – the first on state’s main grid – RenewEconomy (https://reneweconomy.com.au/west-australia-to-build-100mw-big-battery-the-first-on-states-main-grid-78594/)

[bob10]

Western Australia has unveiled its first 20-year blueprint into how the clean energy transition may evolve in its uniquely isolated grid, and it seems clear that rooftop solar PV and battery storage will take centre stage.
The Whole of System Plan – an 18-month piece of work led by a specially formed task-force, with input from the Australian Energy Market Operator, the state government and the state’s main utilities – is similar to AEMO’s Integrated System Plan for Australia’s main grid, but it applies only to WA’s South West Interconnected System, possibly the world’s biggest isolated grid.

Rooftop solar and battery storage take centre stage in W.A energy transition | RenewEconomy (https://reneweconomy.com.au/rooftop-solar-and-battery-storage-take-centre-stage-in-w-a-energy-transition-72332/)

[bob10]

Net Zero targets changes the game, renewables the new King of electricity.



Net zero targets change the game as IEA hails renewables as new "king" of electricity | RenewEconomy (https://reneweconomy.com.au/net-zero-targets-change-the-game-as-iea-hails-renewables-as-new-king-of-electricity-27439/)

You’re going to hear a range of yelping and squealing noises from we energy nerds over the next few days. Love it or loathe it, the release of the International Energy Agency’s IEA) World Energy Outlook (WEO (https://www.iea.org/events/world-energy-outlook-2020)) 2020 is totemic calendar event for policy wonks, power geeks and climate policy watchers around the globe.
Despite the neutral-sounding name, the IEA’s history is specifically skewed towards fossil fuels. “The IEA was created in 1974 to help co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in the supply of oil. While oil security this remains a key aspect of our work, the IEA has evolved and expanded significantly since its foundation”, they write on their website. It’s easy still to see hallmarks of this history.

[bob10]

Solar power now the cheapest electricity in history.

The WEO2020 includes, for the first time, a scenario that is broadly consistent with what might be needed to try and cap average global warming to a maximum 1.5°C, rather than the second prize of 2.0°C previously modelled under its Sustainable Development Scenarios.
This requires reaching net zero emissions by 2050, rather than 2070, and includes significant emissions reductions over the next decade, driven mostly by a vast increase in wind and solar production, a shift to electric vehicles, and “behavioural changes” that could reduce demand.
The IEA appears ready to embrace this because it has discovered that solar is much cheaper than it thought – in fact, up to 50 per cent cheaper than its estimates of just two years ago, in WEO2018. And it’s not the market that’s changed, so much as IEA’s interpretation of the facts.



Solar power is now "cheapest electricity in history", says IEA | RenewEconomy (https://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-power-is-now-cheapest-electricity-in-history-says-iea-39195/)

[bob10]

Faster, smarter, cheaper. Batteries are beating gas at it's own game


In a report published on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/batteries-vs-peaking-plants-case-study-from-13-october-wilson/'trackingId=xoFeGQSzRfaWQmAsINU7iQ%3D%3D) this week, Wilson writes about the performance of the UQ battery on the morning of Tuesday October 13, when Queensland’s spot electricity price rocketed from an average of around $25/MWh to the market cap of $15,000/MWh, “seemingly out of nowhere.”
As Wilson notes the prices dropped back to $17/MWh in the following dispatch interval, before then hitting the market price floor of -$1,000/MWh for the next two and then settling at $2,179/MWh for the trading interval.
The reasons behind this spike have been the subject of a series of explainers (http://www.wattclarity.com.au/articles/2020/10/casestudy-p4-whodidwhat/) on Paul McArdle’s Watt Clarity and, like Wilson, RenewEconomy will leave the whys to one side for now. Suffice it to say: it’s complicated.




Faster, smarter, cheaper: Batteries are beating gas peakers at their own game | RenewEconomy (https://reneweconomy.com.au/faster-smarter-cheaper-batteries-are-beating-gas-peakers-at-their-own-game-56367/)

[bob10]

Big batteries are getting bigger and smarter, and doing things fossil fuels can't do | RenewEconomy (https://reneweconomy.com.au/big-batteries-are-getting-bigger-and-smarter-and-doing-things-fossil-fuels-cant-do-96815/)