In science’s quest to develop less polluting sources of energy, hydrogen gas has often been used as an example as a potential replacement for fossil fuels: aside from being the most abundant substance in the universe, it is also the most combustible natural substance known, and only produces pure water when burned with oxygen. Unfortunately, the chemical instability of its gaseous form means that storing it is inherently hazardous, and the extraction of the gas from hydrogen’s more stable forms, such as water or petroleum products, can be highly energy inefficient, or produce a disproportionate amount of waste pollutants.
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On January 30, Tesla Motors announced the opening of a massive battery storage facility in California, one of three such facilities constructed under what is being called "The Powerpack project", in partnership with electrical utility provider Southern California Edison (SCE). With the addition of the two other facilities, being built by AES Corp. and Altagas Ltd., the three plants will amount to 15 percent of the world’s battery-storage capacity installed last year.

The intent of assembling such a massive amount of electrical storage is to allow electrical utility companies to avoid having to fall back on fossil fuels to generate power during times of peak demand, a necessary step for the successful transition to more carbon-friendly energy sources.
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