That’s Not A Big Battery, This Is A Big Battery

Republished By Plato

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After surviving fire issues, Australia’s newest biggest battery, the Victorian Big Battery (VBB) near Geelong, has discharged at its full 300MW capacity for the first time. VB is short for Victoria Bitter — a popular beer. Now we have VBB!

The Vic Big Battery just hit a major milestone, discharging 300 MW for the first time as it begins final testing.

That’s the most battery power ever injected into the Australian grid!

The Vic Govt’s proud to have supported this battery, with @Neoen_AU, @Tesla & @AEMO_Energy pic.twitter.com/ORlule6Ig8

— Lily D’Ambrosio MP (@LilyDAmbrosioMP) November 12, 2021

“The milestone also means that the VBB will be fully commissioned in time for summer, despite the setback and delays from the fire that erupted in one of its Tesla Megapack containers in July, just hours after initial testing had begun,” Giles Parkinson reports in RenewEconomy.

The town of Marble Bar in East Pilbara, Western Australia, is no stranger to heatwaves. Its population of 600 has sweltered through quite a few. In an average year, temperatures top 35°C for 200 days out of 365. It holds the Guinness World Record for 100 days above 40°C. Now they are installing a 582kW/583kWh battery electric storage system (BESS) to absorb all the planned solar and power all those much needed air conditioners.

One step off the grid, reports, “The BESS joins the Marble Bar solar farm which generates more than 1000MWh of renewable electricity per year and is one of nine projects being rolled out across WA communities. The project is expected to enable the release of approximately 10MW of new rooftop solar hosting capacity.”

A little further south in WA, Vanadium Limited is utilizing a federal grant to install a hybrid Stand Alone Power System (SPS) at its Western Australian nickel, copper and cobalt mine, located 360 km southeast of Kalgoolie. Ironically, the mine has been using diesel power to mine the raw materials to make batteries. Now it will use solar power, backed up by a BESS and diesel, if there are long periods of cloud cover.

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