So why has Tesla slowly ramped up its energy storage projects, and brought in many more large-scale systems in recent months? And why is Tesla potentially launching a home battery and a larger utility battery now? Musk said on Tesla’s earnings call in February that Tesla has already been “bidding on a lot of RFPs ,” for utilities looking to build energy storage projects. In contrast to the residential-focused smaller systems from its early partnership with SolarCity, many of the more recent energy storage projects are much larger, up to 1 MW in size, for commercial and government partners. Five hundred customers originally signed up to buy the batteries through the two companies connection delays at one point in spring 2014 were so bad that SolarCity started publicly complaining about the issues.Īccording to the most recent data available, Tesla has close to a hundred energy storage projects that have requested funding from the 2015 SGIP budget. Utility companies are naturally slow moving, but the sudden influx of distributed generation and storage caught them off guard. One of the biggest hurdles for these early residential projects was just getting the local utilities to connect the systems to the power grid. Tesla’s projects therefore take up just less than half of the budget for last year.Īccording to another Bloomberg report from last week, there are now 300 homes in California that have Tesla batteries and SolarCity solar panels. The SGIP now says it’s on track to deliver $65 million in funding for Tesla energy storage projects from its 2014 budget, which totals $165 million, according to a program spokesperson. (Bloomberg reported last week that the retailer now has Tesla batteries at 11 of its stores.)įast forward to 2014 and you’ll find Tesla ramping up its energy storage plans.
#TESLA CAR BATTERY OVERVIEW INSTALL#
SolarCity told me at the time that the projects were in the “pilot stage” and that SolarCity expected to install batteries at up to 10 Walmart stores by early 2013. Later that year, at a conference in Las Vegas, Elon Musk told an audience that SolarCity had been working with Wal-Mart (WMT) to install battery systems, paired with solar panels, at its stores. At the time, the duo had submitted at least 70 applications for SGIP funding.
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In 2012, I was one of the first to report that Tesla and SolarCity were quietly working on selling both residential and commercial scale building battery systems. While some of Tesla’s early, small energy storage projects-residential systems-didn’t eventually receive the funding, some of those early commercial-scale projects ended up with funding and were later connected to the power grid. More than a decade old, the state program is intended to provide funding for emerging distributed energy systems such as fuel cells and advanced energy storage projects.
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The next year, Tesla began requesting incentives for its energy storage projects from California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program.
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The grant was meant to deploy and monitor a handful of projects that used Tesla’s batteries combined with solar panels and SolarCity’s monitoring systems. That year, the California Public Utilities Commission awarded SolarCity (SCTY) $1.8 million to study how feasible it was to store energy generated by solar panels on a rooftop in a battery at the base of the building. About five years ago, in late summer 2010, co-founder and chief technology officer of solar system installer SolarCity Peter Rive-cousin of Tesla CEO Elon Musk-was tinkering with a lead acid battery pack in his garage in San Francisco.