Tesla kills duck

Tesla kills the Duck with big batteries

It is a good headline isn`t it. However it is not another story about problems with the autonomous driving mode of the Tesla car, it is actually about Tesla`s battery business making and installing a huge battery farm that can fill the demand when solar power is not available.

The duck curve is so called because a graph showing how solar panels produce more power than is needed during the day, and standby power is needed in the evening when demand is high and the sun goes down looks like a duck.

© If it looks like a duck ... (Photo: California ISO)

In Southern California a big natural gas leak turned into an ecological disaster and the utilities started searching for an alternative. Despite none of the utilities thinking that it was possible until 2020 at the earliest,  Tesla has delivered a giant battery farm with 396 stacks of batteries that can provide enough electricity to power 15,000 houses for four hours, about how long it takes to shave the peaks, to kill the duck.

More information can be found on treehugger.

Added Thursday 2nd February 2017