Tesla is known for making electric cars. But the company has been quietly moving into another business line: providing batteries for energy storage systems.
In an email sent Tuesday, the Palo Alto company told investors and analysts that it planned to unveil a pair of energy storage batteries on April 30 — one for home use and one for very large installations, Bloomberg reported. At the launch event, Tesla will explain the advantages of our solutions and why past battery options were not compelling, Jeffrey Evanson, Tesla s head of investor relations, said in the email, according to Bloomberg.
But Tesla has already been moving into energy storage systems. According to the Bloomberg report, the company has installed batteries in some 300 California homes that have solar panels, as part of a pilot program with SolarCity, a solar panel installer whose chairman is Elon Musk, Tesla s CEO. Working with SolarCity, Tesla has also installed batteries at 11 California Wal-Mart stores.
Such storage systems can store power generated by solar panels for use when the sun isn t shining or power rates are high, helping to reduce or eliminate electricity costs.
Many analysts are bullish on Tesla s entry into the market. GTM, an industry research firm, expects energy storage to become a $1.5 billion market in the United States by 2019, which would be nearly 12 times larger than its size last year. State programs such as California s Self-Generation Incentive Program are offering millions of dollars in rebates for companies that deploy energy storage systems. And energy storage would be another market for the batteries Tesla plans to manufacture at the factory it is constructing in Nevada.
Photo: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, center, with other company officials at a Tesla event in 2012. (Patrick Tehan/Staff)
