Tesla has chosen an Australian coal town to build a battery service, repair, and renewal facility for its vehicle, home-sized and electricity grid-scale battery products.
The U.S. company’s re-manufacturing facility in Collie, Western Australia’s (WA) southwest, will be one of the largest in the nation and could eventually service the Asia-Pacific region.
“We have one of the world’s biggest stand-alone electricity grids in the southwest … we have the biggest grid-scale batteries in Australia, and some of the biggest on the planet being hooked up to that grid,” Energy Minister Reece Whitby said on Feb. 7.
“It makes sense that Tesla is here.”
The facility is being built at the site of Neoen’s Collie Battery.
Powered by 560 Tesla Megapacks, it will be the nation’s largest grid-scale battery when completed.
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The Tesla service facility is expected to become operational by 2026. It will initially service Tesla’s grid-scale Megapack batteries and other Tesla products installed in WA.
Residential Powerwall batteries and electric vehicle charging equipment will also be serviced at the site once further development is completed.
Tesla Regional Director of Energy Josef Tadich said the facility would enable the company to repair and perform maintenance on its utility-scale and residential batteries locally.
“Providing faster support for local customers while reducing logistical costs and emissions,” he said.
Tesla Energy is a major supplier of household battery storage in Australia, revealing it had sold more than 33,000 Powerwall batteries in the country in 2022.
Tesla also installed what was then the largest lithium-ion battery in the world at Hornsdale in South Australia in 2017, though the battery received a capacity boost from Neoen in 2019.
A Memorandum of Understanding to develop the project was signed in December between Premier Roger Cook and Tesla Motors Australia.
Collie’s coal mines and power stations have powered WA for more than 100 years to become the nation’s economic engine room.
About 200 kilometres south of Perth, it’s home to about 7500 people and the site of a massive state government-supported pivot away from the coal industry.
