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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Tesla said to be getting into energy-storage business

Analysts, environmental groups briefed on projects

The Columbian
Published:

Tesla Motors is expected to announce next week that it will expand into a new business offering battery-based energy storage for residential and commercial customers.

Documents filed with the California Public Utilities Commission show that Tesla already has begun pilot projects that leverage technology it has developed for electric car batteries for stationary energy storage.

The Palo Alto automaker collected $65 million in state incentives for its projects last year under the advanced storage technology portion of the PUC’s Self-Generation Incentive Program, according to Terrie Prosper, a spokeswoman for the agency.

The electric car company has started to brief environmental groups and analysts on its plans.

Storing electricity efficiently, inexpensively and safely is a problem that has vexed the power industry since electricity was first harnessed.

But such storage has huge implications for bolstering the national electricity grid and reducing pollution from power generation.

Homeowners and businesses, for example, could charge their batteries at night, when there is surplus generation and rates are cheap, and then use the power during the day, when there is a heavy load on the grid and rates are highest.

“You can look at the battery as an asset on the grid and then you can start to figure out the financial opportunities,” said Rajit Gadh, director of the Smart Grid Energy Research Center at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

“Tesla is looking to get into energy storage whether it is on four wheels or stationary,” said Max Baumhefner, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council who was briefed by the automaker.

Tesla’s strategy is designed to leverage a planned $5 billion investment by the car company, battery cell manufacturer Panasonic and other partners in a huge lithium-ion battery “Gigafactory” under construction near Reno, Nev.

Musk has said the factory will reduce the cost of producing batteries by about 30 percent and is critical to the automaker’s plans to introduce a small electric family sedan that will sell in the $30,000 range after government rebates and incentives.

Tesla is looking for other profitable ways to tap production from the plant.

“The Gigafactory is a big play for the whole energy world,” Baumhefner said.

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