While we’ve all been distracted by Elon Musk’s increasingly bizarre tweets, Tesla has been hard at work behind the scenes building something that has nothing to do with cars: Megapack.
It’s a giant battery that will provide energy for power grids
Currently, most local power grids rely on “peaker plants” — which are powered by natural gas — to provide extra juice during moments of peak demand for power.
Megapack is designed as a sustainable alternative to existing peaker plants that stores and then distributes clean solar and wind energy instead of dirty natural gases.
Tesla tested the technology that went into Megapacks in a massive experiment facility in Australia, and that facility saved more than $40m in its first year of operation.
It’s the latest power-pack in Tesla’s booming battery business
Tesla’s energy storage division already offers 2 other products: Residential-scale Powerwall storage systems and commercial-scale Powerpack systems.
Last quarter, these 2 existing energy storage products accounted for $368m in revenue, a small chunk of Tesla’s $6.4B in overall revenue.
But the number of Powerwalls — and the amount of energy they crank out — is sharply on the rise: There are now 50k Powerwalls installed, and the amount of energy Tesla’s energy systems produced increased 81% last quarter.
