As a record heatwave pushed California’s electric grid to the brink last week, the world’s most powerful lithium-ion battery was unveiled outside San Diego, showcasing a technology that could cut the risk of blackouts and aid the state’s climate goals. LS Power’s Gateway battery has far more wattage than the Tesla built Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia, the previous record holder. Yet Gateway will soon be surpassed by even bigger projects in California. Batteries could help the state reach zero-carbon energy targets that were called into question over the past two weeks as furious demand for air-conditioning forced grid managers to make brief power cuts. California has rapidly built up solar photovoltaic generation in the past decade, but the resource fades at sunset.
Batteries can store surplus solar energy at midday, discharging it in the evening. Grid operators have traditionally summoned natural gas-fired “peaker” power plants to serve this peak demand window.
“We’re building what I think of as the new type of peaker plant,” said Cody Hill, LS Power’s vice-president of energy storage. “This is dispatchable capacity that doesn’t have a smokestack.” Gateway’s debut almost doubled California’s battery storage capacity. When it reaches full strength at the end of August it will be able to discharge 250 megawatts – 100MW more than Hornsdale after an expansion there is completed. One megawatt can serve about 750 homes in California.