The twin smokestacks of the Moss Landing Power Plant tower over Monterey Bay. Visible for miles along this picturesque stretch of the Northern California coast, the 500-foot-tall pillars crown what was once California’s largest electric power station — a behemoth natural gas-fired generator. Today, as California steadily moves to decarbonize its economy, those stacks are idle and the plant is largely mothballed. Instead, the site is about to begin a new life as the world’s largest battery, storing excess energy when solar panels and wind farms are producing electricity and feeding it back into the grid when they’re not. Inside a cavernous turbine building, a 300-megawatt lithium-ion battery is currently being readied for operation, with another 100-megawatt battery to come online in 2021. Together, they will be able to discharge enough electricity to power roughly 300,000 California homes for four hours during evenings, heatwaves, and other times when energy demand outstrips supply, according to project developer Vistra Energy . These aren’t the only super-sized batteries that will soon be operating at the Moss Landing plant. An additional 182.5 megawatts produced by 256 Tesla megapack batteries are scheduled to begin feeding into California’s electric grid in mid-2021, with plans to […]
Latest Articles
5 Unusual Waste Products That Have Been Recycled Into Something New
Takeaways: Transitioning to a circular economy (minimizing resources, reducing waste and carbon emissions) is the way forward to protecting the planet.
Belgian company PermaFungi...
Nestlé Has Cut Greenhouse Gases by 4 Million Tons Since 2018. How?
Takeaways: Nestle's mission is to be environmentally sustainable and is working towards net-zero emissions by 2050.
Some of the things the company is doing...
Weaving Food in Antimicrobial Threads Could Replace Plastic Wrap and Cut Waste
Takeaways: Researchers from Harvard University may have found a way to tackle food waste sustainably.
They have created an antimicrobial thread which coats the...
Uber Goes Full-Throttle on Electric Vehicles
Takeaways: Uber is committing to being a fully electric, zero-emission platform by 2030 in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
The company hopes to transition...
IKEA Focuses on Forestry Management, Energy Efficiency, Adding Renewables
Takeaways: To reduce their CO2 emissions, IKEA makes furniture from wood harvested from rainforest nations.
As of 2017, the company has sourced over half of...
Using Candy and Jam to Protect Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest
Takeaways: Luiz Henrique Lopes Ferreira is a 22-year-old who makes and sells candies, jam and liqueurs from more than a hundred varieties of local...