Australia: Tesla’s new giant battery is burning

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207 days after the start of work and just before the start of the final work, a new giant battery made from megaback modules from Tesla in the state of Victoria in Australia caught fire.

Last Wednesday, energy company Neon announced the complete completion of its new battery system, the Victorian Big Battery, with 300 MW of power and 450 MW of capacity. It can fully supply electricity to half a million homes in more than an hour.

One built on Friday Tesla-Magabox then caught fire – probably during the final tests. Two of the 13 tonne, 15 meter long and three meter high and wide lithium ion batteries are now burning. However, the fire brigade sees itself well established and does not consider the fire – even if it is in the middle of the stage – to spread further. Shutdown does not work. The fire brigade wants to burn megabacks in a controlled manner. No cooling measures were taken. A spokesman for the fire department on Australian television said it was prolonging the process unnecessarily and estimated the time needed to monitor the island for up to 24 hours.

The fire brigade was operating with respiratory protection, alerting locals to toxic fumes, and the large battery complex was completely destroyed. There should be no injuries. Similarly, this incident should not have affected the power supply in Victoria. As soon as the fire broke out the Victorian was disconnected from the large battery phase.

Energy company Neon is once again collaborating with Tesla for the Victorian Big Battery. Already in 2017, there were two companies Hornstale Reserve Built in South Australia. It is a megaback installation, however at the original output of 100 MW it is significantly smaller than the Victorian large battery. The Hornstale Reserve was for a long time the most powerful battery system in the world, and was later upgraded to nearly 200 MW.

Meanwhile, various companies in Australia work in very large organizations. In the former coal region, the coal region Hunter Valley, for example, is planned for next year A plant with a capacity of 1,200 MW And will go online in 2023.

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