Green energy sources, such as wind power or solar, are certainly proving to be a viable energy source. The next step for them is finding a way to store the electricity they generate for future use on a large scale. A major step forward in electric storage was achieved when the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia was built. The Hornsdale Power Reserve is a 100 MW storage system that uses Tesla’s lithium ion batteries to store electricity generated by wind turbines in southern Australia. The system was built as part of a bet between Telsa CEO Elon Musk and Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brooks. You can read more about that here https://www.powermag.com/tesla-bet-and-delivered-100-mw129-mwh-energy-storage-system-within-100-days/.
The next leap forward is coming from Florida Power and Light (FPL). They recently announced they are working on the Manatee Energy Storage Center, a 409 MW electricity storage system in Florida. It will have 4 times the capacity of the Hornsdale Power Reserve and store electricity from an existing FPL solar array. It is scheduled to come on line in late 2021.
Being able to store electricity generated from sustainable sources is the next major milestone in green energy. I think these two projects show there are exciting times ahead for sustainable energy generation.
