Apple revealed on Wednesday that it will build a large battery power plant at a solar farm in Northern California in which it spearheaded in 2015[N1] . However, the firm did not reveal that the battery packs would be supplied by Tesla.
The megapack battery system was first revealed by Tesla in 2019. Apple's 60MW storage system, although, is not as large as Tesla's. [N2] The company [N3] also developed larger total battery storage systems of about 100MW in Australia and south of Houston, Texas. Moreover, Apple advertised it as "one of the biggest battery projects around the world" in a press release, boasting that the battery pack will power over 7,000 homes for a day. Apple will be able to storage electricity generated by the farm's 130-megawatt solar array using Tesla batteries.
However according to submitted documents in 2020, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors approved the newly-announced setup that would store up to 240 megawatt-hours of electricity. It would be made up from 85 Tesla lithium-ion "megapacks" that is used to fuel the Cupertino headquarters.
On 31st March, 2020[N4] , Apple VP Lisa Jackson told Reuters, "The problem with renewable energy — solar and wind — is that it's by definition intermittent." “If we can do that and demonstrate that it works for us, it alleviates questions about intermittency while still aiding grid stability. It's something that other businesses will replicate or expand upon.”
Although Apple uses lithium-ion batteries in its many devices, no grid-scale schemes are known to be in the works. However, for its electric car initiative, the firm is said to be working on a lithium iron phosphate battery. Tesla is better known for its electric vehicles, however the firm has spent years seeking to develop a grid storage business to supplement the solar devices it purchased. Moreover, to its home battery business, it has been more interested in large-scale energy storage ventures, such as Apple's.