Rare farm opens

The 7500square-metre Tesla battery system, which has been operating since early this year, charges from energy produced by the solar farm and injects electricity into the grid at key times of demand.

While the solar farm’s annual production is 116000MWh, enough to power about 25000 homes, the 25MW/50MWh battery can power 16000 households for two hours during peak demand, solar company representatives say.

The storage system comprises 400 battery packs and 50 installers, described as the ‘‘brains’’ of the operation, which direct energy into the network according to demand.

The battery was developed by Australian renewable energy company Edify Energy and is owned by Edify and global solar operator Wirsol.