Sydney, Australia, has set a goal of obtaining 50% of the electricity it consumes from renewable sources by 2030. As part of that program, it has recently activated a 1,600 solar power installations coupled with a 500 kWh of Tesla Powerpack battery installations.
While the solar installation isn’t the city’s largest, it is the first to combine solar with large-scale batteries and this will also allow the depot to be classified as carbon neutral and eliminate about 600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
This ‘solar-battery combo’ will also prove to doubters that battery storage could eliminate the need for costly peaker plants, electric generating facilities that are brought online during the hours of peak demand. The batteries will be remotely managed in real time by electricity transmission group TransGrid.
By mid-2021, Sydney expect to have more than 7,800 rooftop solar panels. Solar solutions like this could provide reliability and resilience to the electricity network and potentially prevent blackouts.
Many parts of Sydney are located on the shores of its famous harbor and could be significantly affected by rising ocean levels so they need to come up with a strategy to address climate change, this move is a step in that direction.