Tesla Updates Belgium Grid
Tesla energy products continue their world tour of infrastructure upgrades - this time replacing a legacy turbojet generator in Belgium that had been used since the end of World War 2.
In early December, a new 40 Tesla Megapack system - with 50 megawatts of power and a 100 megawatt-hour capacity - was activated, freeing the Belgian town of Lessines from the noisy, polluting Deux-Acren power plant that was way past its prime.
The newly updated Deux-Acren is now the largest facility of its type in Europe, and will help regulate the frequency of the European grid - which is very interconnected between the many countries across the continent.
The main company involved - developer Corsica Sole - already runs plants like this in the French islands in the Mediterranean, and has been pushing for this project for years - and have announced that the facility at Deux-Acren is the first of three 100 megawatt-hour facilities planned across Belgium.
With their partners Yuso, and Innovent - both of which are energy and engineering firms - as well as Tesla or course, Corsica Sole was able to get this refit done without any public subsidies.
This news is very similar to the opening of a Tesla megapack facility in Hungary back in October 2022. That was a much smaller facility, but the idea to use megapack substations to stabilise the ageing and very heavily interconnected European power network was a similar drive.
And when we look back at the Hawaiian facility - which finally replaced the Island’s last coal plant back in June 2022 - we’re starting to see a pattern.
Tesla megapack battery farms have been incredibly useful in growing smaller grids, and stabilising grids that are often hit by storms and other disasters - but the larger projects we’re seeing lately have mostly involved upgrading older infrastructure.
It’s no secret that countries like the US, Canada, and many countries in Europe, all have ageing power infrastructure. This case in Belgium is certainly on the extreme end, but replacing things like coal plants is crucial to cleaning up our atmosphere.
And with people being skittish of nuclear power, sustainable fusion being decades away at least, and pushback from the fossil fuel industry - stabilizing our old grids with megapacks is quickly turning into the best option for keeping the lights on.
It might not be a permanent solution, but it looks like megapack farms will not only help keep the lights on until we find a more efficient power supply - but they’ll help keep us stable even after we do.