![]() “We’re setting up here for the electricity of the future,” NCEMC project manager Bob Beadle was quoted in a news report. Tesla-SolarCity is also providing the solar PV and LiB energy storage capacity for a utility microgrid on the island of Ocracoke off the North Carolina coast.Ĭonnected to North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation’s (NCEMC) power plant, the solar-storage microgrid also will serve as a field lab to test the ability of solar microgrids to better serve local communities, as well as enhance NEMC’s larger grid operations. Island Microgrids: A Market Tipping Point? In the South Pacific, the Mamanuca Group and PowerSmart earlier this month unveiled the initial configuration of a solar-storage microgrid that ultimately is to provide all the electricity for Vunabaka, a new luxury resort and residential complex on the Fijian island of Mamolo.Ĭonsisting of 20 Tesla Powerpack lithium-ion battery energy storage modules (4 MWh), and 1 MW of solar PV, the mini-grid entered an initial phase of production in October, providing emissions-free electrical power for freshwater supply, staff quarters, a commercial kitchen, boat shed and several multimillion dollar residences. SolarCity, which had been chosen to supply the solar PV for the KIUC project, announced Tesla would supply the 13 MW/52 MWh Powerpack lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery-based energy storage system that would enable solar energy from a PV array to be stored and dispatched to KIUC’s grid to ¨shave¨ peak demand in the evenings from 5-10 pm. The system is designed to provide emissions-free electricity from local solar, hydro and biomass resources day and night at $0.14 per Kwh, more than 50 percent lower than the average $0.33 retail cost of electricity in the state.Īt the time, KIUC, Hawai’i’s only member-owned electric utility, said it expected local renewable energy resources would provide 37 percent of electrical power generation in 2016. ![]() Back in 2015, the two companies entered into the U.S.’ first dispatchable solar PV-energy storage power purchase agreement (PPA) with Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC). More recently, shareholders’ approval of Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity creates a vertically integrated corporation capable of manufacturing, designing, engineering, installing and financing solar-storage microgrids from the neighborhood to utility-scale.Īnnouncements made in recent weeks makes it clear that Tesla and SolarCity have been working together to win island LiB solar-storage microrgrid contracts worldwide for quite some time.īring EVs (electric vehicles) into the frame with solar PV-LiB energy storage and you have the fundamental building blocks of the emissions-free energy “ecosystem” Elon Musk and companies have been envisaging since the beginning. ![]() To date, solar-storage and other types of distributed, hybrid systems have been installed on Hawai’i, South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Atlantic and Caribbean islands, but the market is really just beginning to take on well-defined shape and form.Īlong parallel lines, Tesla made waves in the power and energy industry last year when it announced its modular, stationary Powerpack and Powerwall lithium-ion battery (LiB) energy storage systems. Islands have been considered prime candidates for renewable energy microgrids from market inception. ![]()
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