Tesla: Energy storage demand ‘remains significantly above’ production capacity
Tesla made 846MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) deployments in the first quarter of this year and is looking ahead to the opening of a dedicated grid-scale BESS factory to meet demand.
The electric vehicle (EV) and energy technology company reported its Q1 2022 figures earlier this month. As reported by our sister site PV Tech, component shortages were blamed for a continued decrease in solar PV installs, which stood at 48MW for the period, its second worst quarter on record for solar.
Tesla earned US$1.279 billion revenues combined from its energy business, including solar PV and battery storage over the three-month period, significantly more than Q1 2021’s US$893 million and a little more than the US$1.064 billion reported for Q4 2021.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: solar
Declining costs and government encouragement have resulted in a rapid increase in solar energy production in the United States over the past 10 years, although solar’s share remains small: 1.6 percent of all electricity generation in 2018. That rapid growth is projected to continue.