Tesla to use Samsung batteries in Australian storage project
Tesla is set to use Samsung lithium-ion batteries in the world's largest battery energy storage project in South Australia that was commissioned to helped the region deal with regular blackouts.
Back in July, Elon Musk secured Tesla a contract for the world's largest lithium-ion battery thanks in no small part to a guarantee it would be running within 100 days of the contract being signed, or it would be free.

The battery will help ensure South Australia no longer has to suffer repeated blackouts when major storms hit, but in order to do that, Tesla needs to build a 100-megawatt battery quickly.

Gigafactory 1 in Nevada is still in the process of coming online for battery cell production and only began producing them in the first quarter of 2017. Panasonic is Tesla's main battery supplier, but those batteries almost all end up inside Model S and Model X vehicles. We also can't forget Tesla needs to ensure a supply of battery cells is available for its Powerwalls and Powerpacks.

With Tesla already the largest consumer of rechargeable batteries, it should come as no surprise the company had to look elsewhere for battery cells for the South Australian project. According to Electrek, it's Samsung who won out and the South Korean company's battery cells will be used for the world's largest rechargeable battery. Tesla will provide everything else that's required.

To put the scale of this order with Samsung into context, during the last quarter Tesla required 97MWh of energy storage to fulfill all commercial Powerpack orders. For the 100 megawatt South Australia battery, 129 MWh of energy storage is needed. All of that capacity will be provided by battery cells produced at Samsung SDI.

Samsung will be pleased with securing such a large order, but also for having the foresight to develop its own '2170' battery cell announced back in January. 2170 is the latest battery cell format used by Tesla and Panasonic, so by producing a compatible alternative Samsung made itself an obvious choice for future projects where supply is tight.