Tesla Energy is quietly setting its sights on peaker plants
Behind the spotlights trained on the Model 3 production ramp and Elon Musk’s online behavior, Tesla’s Energy business is quietly growing and spreading its reach. Tesla notes that its deployment of stationary batteries, which are designed to supply electricity to residential homes, businesses, and even the power grid, surged 450% in the first six months of 2018 alone. These figures are well in line with Elon Musk’s statement during the Q2 2018 earnings call, when he noted that Tesla Energy is growing at such a pace that it would likely catch up and exceed the company’s electric car business in the future.
During the 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting, Elon Musk announced that Tesla managed to hit a milestone of installing 1 GWh of energy storage to projects worldwide. This is only the beginning, though, as the company is aiming to double its battery storage installations within the next 12 months. Just like its electric cars like the Model 3, Tesla’s energy products like the Powerwall 2 home battery system are seeing overwhelming demand from customers — so much so that installations for the products are quite delayed. In Tesla’s website alone, the company notes that new Powerwall 2 orders would likely not be filled until “late 2018” at the earliest.
Despite the company currently being unable to meet production, Tesla CTO JB Straubel noted in a recent statement to the San Francisco Chronicle that Tesla’s battery production would likely catch up early next year. Straubel stated that while Tesla is scaling production as fast as it could, there are still delays as the demand for the residential market continues to be larger than expected.
