A housing development in Nottingham, England, has pegged a 2MWh Tesla battery to store the facility’s sustainable energy, a move expected to drive down energy costs for homeowners by about 30 percent. Once installed, the battery will be the largest for renewable energy in Europe.
The Trent Basin housing development, which is expected to be built for around $129.8 million, will feature 500 homes in five stages and will be completed by 2020. Should homeowners choose to opt into sustainability, 375kW rooftop or ground-based panels will be installed along with a Tesla battery for storage.
Several buyers have already reserved spots or even purchased homes in the budding development, a result of the potential cost savings and innovation of solar.
Blueprint, the project’s developer, said the battery will store power and help with “performing grid arbitrage and smoothing out the peaks and troughs of supply and demand,” according to SolarPowerPortal.
Tesla residential solar panels and Powerwall 2 sustainable energy system
Essentially, Tesla’s batteries will be used to help level-out the overall sustainable grid in Nottingham, once the development has been built.
“The way we generate and distribute energy in the UK is inefficient and carbon intensive,” said Blueprint’s chief executive Nick Ebbs. “It doesn’t have to be like this. With new technologies, especially in renewable energy and storage, it is possible to do better.”
Tesla’s presence in the European home market comes as a direct goal of Elon Musk’s master plan to provide economic and realistic sustainability options for consumers. Already, Tesla has committed to providing 2MWh powerpacks to homes in California, and expanding to housing markets overseas can be considered a healthy next step for sustainability and Musk.
The city of Nottingham also seems to be excited about taking a step toward innovation.
“I am delighted that Nottingham has been chosen to pilot this innovative scheme,” said Alan Clark, portfolio holder for energy and sustainability at Nottingham City Council. “This growth in community renewable energy will help to sustain our status as the most energy self-sufficient city in the UK.”
