A Tesla battery claimed to be the joint largest in Europe has been switched on in the UK, tasked with storing excess wind energy and cutting the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.
UK-based investment Company Harmony Energy Income Trust announced today (Tuesday) that it has “successfully energised” the Tesla battery in the English county of Buckinghamshire.
The “Bumpers Battery Energy Storage System” can provide 99MW for two hours, giving it 198MWh of total discharge.
Harmony claims this makes it the joint-largest battery energy storage system in Europe.
Harmony Energy, which is investing in large-scale storage assets around the UK, also this month switched on a 49.5MW Tesla battery in Scotland.
Both batteries use Tesla’s two-hour lithium-ion Megapack 2XL system.
Together, Harmony Energy says the two new batteries can store enough energy to power around 450,000 homes.
Harmony Energy said the projects provide “critical balancing services” to the electric grid “whilst also enabling the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy.”
This is because an increased number of energy storage projects reduced the need for UK grid operator National Grid to curtail wind farms during periods when renewable generation exceeds demand.
Harmony said that the successful energisation of the Bumpers project means it now owns two of the three largest operating battery energy storage systems in Europe by MWh, after turning on its 98MW/196MWh project in Yorkshire last November.
The other largest battery, also 99MW/198MWh, is owned by Harmony Energy’s parent entity – known simply as Harmony Energy Ltd. That battery also uses Tesla’s Megapack system at a site in Essex that was switched on earlier this year.
Some lithium-ion batteries globally have had issues concerning overheating, prompting a hunt from developers – including recently a duo of Tesla veterans – for alternatives such as sodium-ion systems.
A fire at a Megapack battery system in Australia recently saw residents advised to stay indoors to avoid hazardous smoke while the incident was dealt with.
