Tesla Inc. installed nearly as many big batteries in this year’s first quarter — powering homes, businesses and the electric grid — as it did in all of 2021, as the growth of renewable power and fears of blackouts drive investments into energy storage.
(Bloomberg) — Tesla Inc. installed nearly as many big batteries in this year’s first quarter — powering homes, businesses and the electric grid — as it did in all of 2021, as the growth of renewable power and fears of blackouts drive investments into energy storage.
Tesla reported Wednesday that it deployed a record 3,889 megawatt hours (MWh) of storage in the quarter, up from 2,462 MWh the prior three months and a 360% increase from the first quarter of 2022. The amount almost equaled 2021’s total of 3,992 MWh. Tesla credited some of the growth to increased production of the Megapack, the company’s biggest battery, at its factory in Lathrop, California, and said “many” more Megapack factories would follow.
Read more: Tesla Blames ‘Volatile Weather’ for Drop in Solar Deployments
Grid-scale battery deployments have accelerated in recent years, both to store excess energy generated by solar and wind facilities and to guard against blackouts on increasingly frail power grids. As recently as 2017, Tesla deployed just 358 MWh of batteries for the entire year.
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