Infigen Energy's energy-efficient storage facility, located next to Lake Bonnie's wind farm in South Australia, is set to take on a major role in decarburizing Australia's core network and transportation.
In October 2019, Infigen has announced that the 25MW/52MWh Tesla battery at the Lake Bonney wind farm has been energised and registered with AEMO.
“With the firming capability of the BESS Infigen will be able to expand its supply contracts from the Lake Bonney Wind Farm to additional commercial and industrial customers in South Australia, which is at the heart of our business strategy,” Ross Rolfe, Chief Executive Office of Infigen, said earlier.
According to PV Magazine, the 25MW/52MWh battery at the Lake Bonney wind farm is in the final stages of testing and close to full commercial operation. Once operational, the big Tesla battery will supply Tesla Australia EV supercharger network with renewable electricity.
The battery will also deliver flexible capacity and system security services, such as Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS), to the electricity grid in South Australia. Once fully commissioned, the Lake Boney system will become the third big battery on the state grid and the second one using Tesla Powerpack technology. The first Tesla big battery is a 100/129 MWh system installed at the Hornsdale wind farm, while the 30 MW/8 MWh Dalrymple grid-scale battery collocated with the 90 MW Wattle Point wind farm on the Yorke Peninsula powered up in January.
Speaking on Lake Bonnie on Tuesday, Minister Van Canvas Pellekaan said that the wind farm and battery at Lake Bonnie are showing South Australia becoming a modern energy market. He emphasized that networked storage is critical to ensuring the operation of renewable energy for consumers, including to enhance retail competition.
“Assets such as the Lake Bonney Wind Farm and Battery provide reliable, affordable and renewable electricity to this state’s commercial and industrial customers,” said Minister van Holst Pellekaan. “It will allow South Australia to incorporate more renewable energy into the system and move towards net-100% renewable energy in the 2030’s.”
The minister also unveiled that Tesla is one of the new commercial customers supported by Infigen’s expansion into the South Australian retail electricity market. “Infigen was recently awarded a retail contract to supply Tesla fast-charging supercharger stations with energy across Australia,” South Australia’s Minister for Energy and Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan said. “Not only will the Lake Bonney Battery use Tesla batteries to store energy, it will also allow Infigen to fuel electric cars at Tesla Superchargers across Australia.”
After full commissioning, Lake Boney will become the third largest battery in the state’s power system and the second using Tesla Powerpack technology.
Images credit: Infigen Energy/YouTube
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
