Australia is set to get another Tesla battery system on its National Electricity Market, with Queensland’s government-owned utilities to install a 4MW/8MWh system in Townsville later this year.
The new battery – the state’s first “community-scale” big battery – will store excess solar power for use in peak periods later in the day, and enhance the Queensland government’s existing 135MW “virtual power plant.”
It will also act as back-up in storms, facilitate more rooftop solar in the area, and help defray network spending by reducing the strain on local infrastructure such as transformers.
Acting energy minister Mark Furner said the battery would be located in the “solar hotspot” of Townsville to support the state’s transition to 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
“As the first publicly owned community scale battery in Queensland, this represents an energy milestone,” he said
The Tesla battery will be managed by Yurika, a newly formed government-owned energy unit, that also runs the virtual power plant and which has also managed the roll-out of the fast-charging electric vehicle network in the state.
