Tesla, Vestas pair up to develop ways to combine storage and wind

Dive Brief:

Tesla has struck a deal to work with Vestas Wind Systems to find ways of combining wind turbine and energy storage technologies.
The partnership is part of a wider effort by Vestas, which is also working with other battery manufacturers.
For Tesla, the deal moves the market for its batteries beyond its electric vehicles and Powerwall batteries designed for use in homes and businesses.

Dive Insight:

Vestas began working toward combining wind power with energy storage since 2012 when it paired its 12 MW Lem Kaer wind farm in western Denmark with two lithium-ion batteries, one a 1.2 MW, 300 kWh system and the other a 400 kW, 100 kWh system.

The Danish company stepped up those efforts at its general meeting in April when it announced it wanted to focus on energy storage.

Vestas is now working with about 10 different companies to come up with an integrated wind turbine-plus-storage solution that would make wind power attractive for a wider array of use-cases by making the energy more dispatchable.

“Across a number of projects, Vestas is working with different energy storage technologies with specialized companies, including Tesla, to explore and test how wind turbines and energy storage can work together in sustainable energy solutions that can lower the cost of energy,” the company said in a statement to Bloomberg.

The partnership with Tesla is also likely to spur sales of batteries and improve economies of scale for manufacturers like Tesla. And it's not the first time the electric car manufacturer is pairing its battery packs with wind. Earlier this year, wind developer Deepwater Wind announced it would pair a 144 MW offshore wind farm with a 40 MWh battery storage system from Tesla.

Vestas is the leader in wind turbine market share, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s February rankings. A total of 8.7 GW of Vestas turbines were installed in 2016, representing 16% of all onshore installations, according to BNEF. General Electric took second place in the rankings with 6.5 GW of turbines installed.