On the heels of the largest gas leak in US history, the state of California has awarded Tesla with a multimillion dollar deal to supply battery packs to citizens throughout the state.
The batteries will be produced in record time and are being created in an attempt to curb power outages in the case another grid failure occurs.
According to Yayoi Sekine, a battery analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the speed Tesla is getting these batteries to market “highlights the maturity of advanced technologies like energy storage to be contracted as a reliable resource in an emergency situation.”
The initial deal will see enough batteries to power about 2,500 homes every day.
This falls in line with Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk‘s plan to reformat Tesla as a solar company by combining it with Solar City.
Though no dollar amount was leaked, Tesla usually charges about $2.9 million for a 2 megawatt power setup. Anything over that (including this case, where close to 20 megawatts of storage are being created) calls for a contract negotiated directly with the company.
This all comes in response to last year’s Porter Ranch methane leak, where thousands of tons of methane were leaked into the atmosphere.
Methane and Oil are quickly becoming obsolete. Dirty and expensive, their ability to run out or spill is severely dangerous for the power grid. Perhaps the biggest weakness of our power grid is that it runs on a finite amount of fuel. Going solar changes that in a big way.
The architecture’s in place.
*Article originally appeared on Minds.
