Green energy
Since wind and solar energy are not always available when electricity is needed, the energy transition relies on battery storage, which stabilizes the power grid and prevents expensive load peaks.
The world’s largest battery storage system for the time-delayed use of green energy has been completed in Australia by UGL, a subsidiary of the HOCHTIEF subsidiary CIMIC. It’s not for nothing that the facility is called the Victorian Big Battery Project. For this project, 210 Tesla megapacks stand out in the open around 80 kilometers southwest of Melbourne.
These megapacks contain batteries like those used by the automaker in its vehicles. An electric vehicle has a capacity of 50 to 100 kWh. The batteries near Melbourne can store 450,000 kWh of energy. Mathematically, this is enough to supply electricity to a million households for half an hour. The Australian state of Victoria plans to switch half of its energy production to renewable energy sources by 2030. Thus this battery storage system plays an important role in energy storage and stabilizing the power grid. In 2023, UGL received an order from the operator to build a new high-voltage connection so that it can temporarily store energy from a nearby solar farm.