Compiled / Zhu Lin
Edited / Tu Yanping
Design / Zhao Haoran
Source/Bloomberg, by Dana Hull, Mark Chediak
Elon Musk has always made it clear that Tesla is more than just a car manufacturer. Solar power and battery storage have been on the back burner for years compared to the challenges facing car production, and now that vision is gradually coming into focus.
In 2022, Musk's electric car company is striving to become an increasingly important energy storage supplier, both for people's homes and for the entire grid.
Speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting in October 2021, Musk said: "Over time, we believe that the demand for fixed energy storage will be at least as high as the demand for cars." ”
On the home side, Tesla is trying to compare it to Apple's hardware ecosystem, which tends to push people who have already bought products to buy more.
Tesla's key products are three-in-one▼
Many tesla customers already have a three-in-one Tesla key product: an electric car in the driveway, Tesla Solar Roof on the roof, and a home battery called Powerwall in the garage (which may also be installed outside the garage).
"Tesla's core concept is to make the house as energy independent and self-sufficient as possible." Analyst Pol Lezcano said. He is from Bloomberg's New Energy Finance Channel, which provides research services for the energy transition.
"Their philosophy is for people to have a Tesla-powered home." He said.
This combination platter often comes in the form of a set menu. Electric vehicles have long been the gateway to solar energy, as charging cars means a sharp rise in household electricity bills, and over time, solar energy can help bear those costs.
Tesla Powerwall▼
Musk estimates that in a two-car household, if all gasoline cars are replaced by electric vehicles, their electricity demand will double. For customers willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the necessary expenses for their solar equipment, Tesla strongly encourages them to buy a Powerwall as well. So far, the company has installed more than 250,000 Powerwall devices around the world.
In 2022, Tesla's macro projects will also be developed. Battery storage for renewables is an attractive option for utilities that are under pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal and natural gas.
Elkhorn Battery Energy Storage System▼
In the San Francisco Bay Area, PG&E and Tesla have built the Elkhorn Battery Energy Storage System, which has 182.5 megawatts of electricity. The system, located at a utility substation near Monterey Bay, will go live in the second half of 2022 and will be one of the largest such utility systems on the planet, capable of providing hours of electricity to approximately 136,500 homes.
Tesla's utility-grade battery product, a modular system called Megapack, starts at about $1.4 million, the size of a 0.8-megawatt battery, according to information on the company's website.
The Elkhorn system uses exactly many of these batteries. Musk's team is building a factory in the Lethrop area of California's Central Valley to begin mass production of Megapack battery modules. They called the factory megafactory.
Tesla Megapack battery module▼
At the junction of the home and the grid, there is a Tesla pilot project called the Virtual Power Plant, which allows customers of California's three largest electric utilities to distribute their electricity back to the grid when demand is high.
According to the California Public Utilities Commission, participants in the Tesla project have so far possessed a total of 42 megawatts of batteries, enough to power about 31,500 homes. In Texas, the company recently won a license to sell electricity directly to consumers, while it is building an energy trading team to sell batteries to wholesalers.
Tesla will have a lot of challenges to overcome. The lack of battery cells and the strained labor market for qualified electricians have repeatedly delayed their ambitions to make a big splash in the energy industry. The company faces stiff competition from large industrial conglomerates as well as established rooftop solar and battery installers. Leaders of Tesla's energy division rarely stay in office for long, which may have further exacerbated the delay.
These new department leaders will have to contend with Musk's obsession with Solar Roof. This solar roof is made up of textured glass the size of many tiles, which are filled with photovoltaic cells. Solar Roof looks cool and popular with customers, but it's still expensive and difficult to install.
Solar Roof solar roof glass tile▼
In 2016, Musk persuaded Tesla shareholders to buy a solar panel installer called SolarCity for $2 billion, and the expensive and difficult-to-install situation of solar Roof has not changed for more than five years since.
The deal was fraught with conflict: Musk was solarCity's chairman and largest shareholder, and his cousin was in charge of the company's day-to-day operations and was the subject of a lawsuit by Tesla's shareholders. Musk said he shunned the deal, but court documents show he remained actively involved, even advocating the deal directly to bankers and investors.
None of this seems to have stopped the true believers. In the summer of 2021, during a trial over the SolarCity acquisition, Antonio Gracias, an early investor in Tesla and a former board member, testified to the Delaware Court of Chancery that the company had not abandoned its earlier plans to reshape the way the world produces energy.
"My view is that Tesla will be the General Electric of the 21st century." He said, "We've been on this path ever since. ”