Tesla’s Outback Big Battery Fails to Retake Crown After Upgrade

Hornsdale battery in South Australia gets 50% capacity boost
LS Power’s 230-megawatt unit in California now world’s biggest

Elon Musk speaks during an event at the Hornsdale wind farmoperated by Neoen SAS, near Jamestown, South Australia, in 2017.Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg

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By James Thornhill

September 2, 2020 at 1:06 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

The Tesla Inc.-installed Hornsdale battery in South Australia completed an upgrade that boosted its capacity by 50%, but fell short of winning back its title as the world’s biggest lithium-ion unit.

The pioneering facility, which Elon Musk installed in 2017 after winning a bet that he could get the system up and running in 100 days to help address a power crisis, now has a capacity of 150 megawatts, project owner Neoen SA said Wednesday. A 230-megawatt system in California that started last month is currently the world’s biggest.