Tesla has secured a massive contract to provide Megapack battery systems to a California power company, according to Electrek.
The tech company, best known for its line of electric vehicles, will be providing California's Intersect Power with more than 15 gigawatt-hours (or GWh) of its Megapack energy storage systems in the next five years. The contract, which Electrek referred to as "absurdly large," will cost somewhere between $2.5 and $3.5 billion.
"Intersect continues to be an exceptional partner, and their development expertise combined with the plug-and-play nature of Tesla's vertically integrated technology enables the speed and scale needed to enhance grid resilience and support greater renewables integration," Tesla Energy's senior director Mike Snyder said, per Electrek.
To give you an idea of the scale of the project, Tesla reports that one Megabank battery unit, which holds 3.9 megawatt hours (MWh), can power an average of 3,600 homes for one hour.
Even though it is clear that the world must transition away from polluting dirty fuels, which have caused temperatures to rise and are linked to physical and mental health issues, one of the few drawbacks to solar energy as a power source is what to do at night — or on cloudy or rainy days. However, Tesla's batteries allow the unused, low-cost energy from solar panels to be stored and dispersed during times when the panels aren't bringing in as much power.
And with 1,000 MWh in a GWh, it's clear that this is a massive amount of clean energy that can be stored and dispersed.
Intersect is a smaller company in California's market, currently accounting for just 2.2 GW of solar photovoltaic power, with 2.4 GWh worth of storage. This contract will allow them to scale up their production of clean energy, thereby reducing California's reliance on more harmful forms of electricity production.
The first of the battery packs are expected to be delivered later this year.
"No one in the market can match Tesla's depth of experience in storage technology," Intersect Power CEO Sheldon Kimber said, per Electrek. "This partnership is the foundation of one of the largest and fastest-growing storage portfolios in the country here at Intersect Power. This storage franchise is the perfect complement to our multi-billion dollar expansion of renewable generation that is expected to more than triple the size of our company over the next three years."
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