Dive Brief:
- Tesla has installed a battery storage system at the Sierra Nevada brewery in Chico, Calif., aimed at helping the beermaker continue its environmentally-friendly ways while also reducing costly demand charges.
- Sierra Nevada already had almost 11,000 solar panels installed, and in 2010 was named the region's Green Business of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- The brewery's panels supply about 20% of its energy consumption, but as Greentech Media notes, the process still creates regular and expensive demand peaks which the batteries will help smooth.
Dive Insight:
Tesla's newest storage installation aims to create green beer outside of the traditional St. Patrick's Day swill, helping Sierra Nevada utilize even more carbon-free energy at its California production facility.
Electrek.Co provides some details on the project, including pointing out that the Powerpack systems will be built in Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada. The 500 kW/1 MWh system will be paired with the brewery's existing solar array, which already produces enough energy to power more than 250 homes annually.
In addition to solar energy and the stored power, Sierra Nevada uses natural gas and biogas from a wastewater plant in Mills River. The Chico system includes 10 microturbines, which the brewery says have a capacity of 2 MW. The facility also uses heat recovery units on boilers, microturbines, and brew kettles.
Tesla is already aiming to link solar energy, battery systems and electric cars. Pairing its experimental autonomous vehicles with a ride home from the brewery could complete an impressive cycle of integration. Its Gigafactory began mass production of battery cells this year, which will be used in the company's Powerwall 2 and Powerpack 2 energy products. Cells for its Model 3 cars will begin production in the second quarter.
By next year, the Gigafactory plans to produce 35 GWh/year of lithium-ion battery cells.
The project at Sierra Nevada's brewery is not Tesla's first foray into fermentation. In 2015 Jackson Family Wines installed storage systems at several locations. The company, which produces Kendall-Jackson wines, used 21 storage systems to bring together 4.2 MW of storage capacity.