Big batteries

South Australia is now home to the world's biggest battery.

The battery instillation is connected to a wind farm.

It also connects to the larger grid, to cater to times, when there is insufficient wind.

The instillation is being done by a Elon Musk company, also known for building Tesla,

the electric car, and the Falcon Heavy Rocket.

The batteries are a network of hundreds of small units called power packs.

Each power pack is a small refrigerator size Lithium-ion battery.

The power pack has sixteen layers of batteries inside.

These batteries pods contain cells.

The cells are small enough to hold in your hand.

There are the fundamental building blocks of the battery.

The network batteries is the size of a football field.

Inverters convert the DC power generated to AC.

The batteries can generate 100 Mega Watts of power, which can energise 30000 homes.

South Australia is now leading the world in dispatch-able renewable energy, 

delivered to homes and business 24 cross 7.

The same cells that goes into power packs, 

are also the building blocks for home power units called power walls.

They are also the building blocks for the batteries in cars and trucks.

Each individual cell is less than 3 inches long, and smaller than 1 inch in diameter,

and works the same way as the battery in a smart phone.

When the battery is charging, positively charged Lithium ions move from the cathode to the anode.

This causes the electrons to concentrate in the anode.

When the battery discharges, the reverse happens.

The electrons move through the circuits providing the electricity.

Renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy, have one small drawback.

The sun does not always shine, and the wind does not always blow.

Batteries are a important component in the system to make it more resilient.

These kind of batteries are now not only technologically feasible, but also economically viable.