Just recently, Tesla rolled out a subtle update to its official website. After welcoming the site’s visitors with its electric vehicle lineup for years, tesla.com now primarily showcases Tesla Energy products, represented by a header image featuring a home with solar panels and Powerwall batteries. The update was simple, but the company’s message was clear: Tesla Energy’s time to shine in the spotlight as arrived. The time to push battery storage and solar solutions into the mainstream market is now.
Tesla is known more as an electric vehicle manufacturer, and for good reason. The company owes its existence to the original Tesla Roadster, a small sports car that was built on a Lotus platform that broke mainstream conventions about what an electric car could be like. But the company’s mission as per CEO Elon Musk has always been clear: Tesla exists to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainability. And it just so happens that electric vehicles cannot get the job done alone.
During a previous interview with Teslarati, Robert Bollinger, the founder of Bollinger Motors, a maker of off-road, rough-and-tough EV trucks and pickups, stated that any new automaker today has to be focused on electric cars. And he’s absolutely right. It may not be universally acknowledged outright, but the automotive industry knows that electric vehicles are the way to go in order to survive the future. Full stop.
It might be a strange idea today, but there was once a time when electric vehicles were not taken seriously by the motoring industry at all. With the Model S, Model 3, Model X, and now the Model Y, Tesla has essentially pulled the automotive sector towards electric transportation kicking and screaming. After years of empty EV promises, unnecessarily complex electric concept cars that will never get mass produced, and sweet-talking statements about commitments to a zero-emissions future, legacy auto simply cannot stand by and maintain its old stance. It simply cannot afford to if it wants to survive.
The same has not happened yet to the utility sector. Renewables are on the rise, and climate action awareness is gaining ground. But overall, the idea of utilities being powered by renewables and giant batteries is still widely considered as niche ideas for now. The fossil fuel industry is still very prominent in the energy sector, and thus, the battle for sustainability on this front is only just beginning — and it will be very, very difficult. If the automotive sector was pulled into EVs kicking and screaming, the energy sector, which is dominated by the fossil fuel industry, will likely fight even harder.
This is something that supporters of Tesla and those that follow the company have to keep in mind. Tesla has struggled with misinformation for over a decade thanks to short-sellers and skeptics who simply don’t believe in electric cars or the company’s specific approach to EVs. It would thus be wise to brace for the upcoming challenges that will be brought about by Tesla quite literally taking on the fossil fuel industry, and in an arena that it has dominated for a very long time.
Fortunately, Tesla is now a mature company with an equally mature technology. Its battery tech is also second to none, as evidenced by the upcoming announcements for its highly-speculated million-mile battery. These, together with the support of an electric car business that is now the largest in the automotive industry by market cap, may very well give Tesla Energy enough power to disrupt, and eventually transition, the utility sector towards sustainability.
Tesla Energy has become the undisputed dark horse of the electric vehicle maker. This was highlighted by Tesla Energy’s growing role in the company’s overall operations in the past quarters.
And as per Tesla’s year-end milestone posts on X, Tesla Energy had a blockbuster 2024.
Tesla Energy’s 2024 milestones:
- As per Tesla on its official social media account on X, the company has hit over 800,000 Powerwalls installed worldwide.
- From this number, over 100,000 Powerwall batteries have been enrolled in virtual power plant (VPP) programs.
- The Powerwall 3 has officially been launched in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.K., Germany, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand.
- The Tesla Megapack hit over 22 GWh in operation across more than 60 countries across the globe.
- The Lathrop Megafactory, which produces the Megapack, has been ramped to 40 GWh per year.
- The Lathrop Megafactory has also produced its 10,000th Megapack battery.
- The Shanghai Megafactory was completed in just seven months, and it is ready to start Megapack production in Q1 2025.
Hit 800k Powerwalls installed worldwide
— Tesla (@Tesla) December 31, 2024
Also:
– Over 100k Powerwalls are now enrolled in VPP programs
– Launched Powerwall 3 in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, UK, Germany, Italy, Australia & New Zealand
– Megapack hit 22+ GWh in operation across 60+ countries
– Ramped… pic.twitter.com/bE88DpeyTg
Powerwall owners’ 2024 impact:
- As per Tesla Energy, Powerwall owners generated a total of 4.5 TWh of solar energy globally in 2024. This was equivalent to powering a Model 3 for more than 17 billion miles.
- A total of 1.1 TWh of energy was stored in Powerwalls in 2024. This protected homes from over 5.8 million outages during the year.
- Tesla’s Storm Watch feature for Powerwall batteries covered 2.8 million severe weather events over the year.
- Powerwall owners saw collective savings of over $800 million on utility bills.
- Virtual Power Plants contributed over 2.2 GWh of power to the grid. This reduced the need for 2,200 metric tons of fossil fuel peaker plant emissions.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Utah-based rPlus Energies recently held the groundbreaking ceremony for the Green River Energy Center, a 400 MW solar PV and 400 MW/1,600 MWh battery storage project in Eastern Utah. Tesla Megapacks will be used as the upcoming facility’s battery storage solution.
At 400 MW/1,600 MWh, the Green River Energy Center is expected to become one of the largest solar-plus-storage projects under development in the United States. Once operational, the facility would supply power to PacifiCorp under a power purchase agreement, as noted in a press release.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox shared his excitement for the project during the Green River Energy Center’s groundbreaking event. As per the Utah Governor, the solar and battery storage system represents a notable step forward for the state’s sustainable energy efforts.
NEWS: rPlus Energy has just broken ground on a new $362 million @Tesla Megapack battery energy storage system in Utah.
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 24, 2024
This 400 MW solar PV and 400 MW/1,600 MWh battery storage project is one of the largest solar-plus-storage projects under construction in the nation. The entire… pic.twitter.com/ubPOUnPWEf
“This project is being built in rural Utah, by rural Utahns, and for all of Utah. When rural Utah thrives, the entire state prospers. Today, we’re not just breaking ground—we’re building a future of affordable, abundant energy in Utah,” the official noted.
The Green River Energy Center secured over $1 billion in construction debt financing earlier this year. The facility is also expected to create about 500 jobs, many of which will be filled by local workers. With this in mind, the solar and battery farm would likely prove to be a boost to Emery County’s economy, enhancing tax revenue, strengthening public services, and offering long-term employment opportunities for the area’s residents.
Sundt Construction will serve as the project’s contractor, EliTe Solar will supply the solar modules, and Tesla will provide the battery storage system for the project. Luigi Resta, President and CEO of rPlus Energies, noted that the Green River Energy Center is special because of the entities that have worked together to make the facility a reality.
“It’s the partners that make this project special, that have made this monumental project possible. From our equipment providers to the onsite talent, and the support of the local and regional community, we owe this project’s success to each of you,” he stated.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Tesla Energy is losing a director who brought Autobidder, a real-time trading and control platform that provides value-based asset management and portfolio optimization, to the company.
Rohan Ma, who has been at Tesla for just under eight years, announced he would depart the company on LinkedIn, aiming to take on a new opportunity elsewhere.
Ma posted:
“After eight years at Tesla, this will be my last week. It was a ride of a lifetime! Today, Tesla Energy is thriving and I can confidently say it’s in the best position it has ever been in to drive impact toward the original mission I signed up for. I’m proud to have contributed over the years to where it is now, and will be cheering the team on from the sidelines as they carry the torch forward and continue to relentlessly solve problems at the frontier of the energy transition.”
Ma started as the Senior Manager of Energy Optimization at Tesla back in November 2016. After four-and-a-half years at the position, he then moved on to a new role as the Director of Energy and Software Optimization. He has been in that role for over three years.
The exit of Ma is the latest in Tesla’s tough year in terms of losing high-level employees.
Earlier this year, as a part of widespread layoffs, Tesla eliminated up to 20 percent of its workforce and people like Rebecca Tinucci, who was the company’s Senior Director of EV Charging.
Tesla also lost Rohan Patel, Vice President of Global Public Policy and Business Development, and Martin Viecha, who was Head of Investor Relations, are just a few notables to depart.
Autobidder
Tesla’s Autobidder platform helps owners and operators make money by autonomously monetizing battery assets. It is a real-time trading and control platform that maximizes revenue according to business objectives and risk preferences.
Tesla Megapack, Autobidder to be deployed in big battery project in Queensland
Autobidder already has hundreds of megawatt-hours under management and continues to scale. It is hosted on Tesla’s secure cloud infrastructure that is engineered to handle large and complex computations.
Without Ma’s expertise, Autobidder would likely not be involved in Tesla’s Energy division at all, and although it is not frequently discussed, it is still a major part of the business’s growth over the past several years.
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