Indian-born British billionaire businessman Sanjeev Gupta wants to break Elon Musk’s Tesla record for the biggest and the most powerful lithium-ion battery in the world.
Tesla had built a 100 megawatt/129 megawatt-hour battery at the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Jamestown, South Australia last year.
Sanjeev Gupta wants to break this record with a 120 megawatt/140 megawatt-hour battery.
Last August, Gupta bought a steelworks in Whyalla, South Australia, through his firm Liberty House.
He now wants to power it with a 200-megawatt solar farm, and thus requires a world-leading battery that will be able to store that kind of energy.
If the new upcoming project is successful, Gupta will replace Tesla as the record holder for the world’s biggest battery.
Since the project aims to solve South Australia’s power crisis, the government has provided Gupta with a loan of $7.8 million to aid the battery’s construction.
The solar farm will assist the state in local grid stability.
The construction of the solar farm will be carried out by Gupta’s clean energy company called Simec Zen Energy.