A Tesla battery that’s claimed by its developer to be Europe’s largest installed so far by storage capacity has been powered up in northeast England, close to the grid connection point for the giant Dogger Bank offshore wind farm.
The storage technology giant built the 98MW/196MWh Pillswood battery using its Megapack technology for Harmony Energy Income Trust, which is investing in large-scale storage assets around the UK.
Pillswood – which Harmony Energy says can store enough energy to power about 300,000 homes for two hours – is located near Hull, and close to the Creyke Beck susbstation that will connect 2.4GW of the total 3.6GW under construction at Dogger Bank, set to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm in operation from mid-decade.
Harmony Energy said the battery will play a role in allowing UK network operator National Grid “to maximise the efficiency of wind farms by reducing the amount of time [they] need to be curtailed due to supply/demand imbalances or network constraints”.
Tesla launched Megapack in 2019 as its commercial entry to the grid-level storage market, with CEO Elon Musk predicting Tesla’s energy business will eventually end up as big as its flagship automotive arm
Pillswood will use Tesla’s Autobidder software artifcial intelligence (AI) software, an energy management platform that made its debut in the UK in 2020.
The developer has two projects already operating using Autobidder and is working on other major battery storage projects around the UK, mostly due to come into service in 2023.
Harmony Energy said Pillswood’s completion was accelerated to allow it to operate in the early months of the coming winter. Director Peter Kavanagh said: “Battery energy storage systems are essential to unlocking the full potential of renewable energy in the UK. These projects are not supported by taxpayer subsidy yet can offer shareholders attractive returns in a variety of market conditions.”
