AES, Tesla’s Battery Competitor, Hedges Its Bets On Energy Storage
Earlier this month The AES Corporation announced partnerships designed to sell its Advancion utility-scale battery system around the globe. But AES did not include income from those partnerships in the 2016 outlook it released today.
AES CEO Andres Gluski nonetheless expects the battery storage market to be “quite large” in five years—not quite as enthusiastic an assessment as Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk’s description of the market as “staggeringly gigantic.”
“In our current financial guidance, we do not include any material income from third-party sales of our Advancion project. We believe this is prudent, since our alliance-based business model is in its initial phases,” Gluski said in a conference call with analysts this morning.
Gluski reported lower earnings than last year but still beat estimates by a penny, and AES stock was up about 4 percent this afternoon in the wake of the call.
Using batteries manufactured by LG Chem, AES will partner with Mitsubishi to sell Advancion in Asia and Australia and with Eaton Corporation in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
