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These 10 U.S. states have the most battery storage capacity installed

Credit: Tesla

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Installation of large-scale energy storage systems is expected to continue increasing in the U.S. throughout 2024, as championed by only a handful of states thus far.

According to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shared on Tuesday, U.S. energy storage system deployment is expected to nearly double in 2024, with battery capacity forecasted to grow by 89 percent. As of November 2023, two U.S. states have installed substantially more energy storage systems than others, making up the vast majority of battery capacity available.

The data shows that California leads energy storage availability by a wide margin, with just over 7.3 GW (7,302 MW) of battery capacity installed. Texas follows in second with nearly 3.2 GW (3,167 MW) installed, while Arizona, Florida, and Massachusetts are next in the lineup.

You can see the full top 10 list for U.S. states with the most battery capacity installed below, courtesy of the EIA.

Credit: Energy Information Administration

The data takes into account planned storage system projects for the next two years, and the agency says developers are aiming to expand U.S. storage capacity by 30 GW by the end of 2024. As the EIA also notes, U.S. battery storage capacity has been increasing since 2021, and if the aforementioned goal is achieved, the country will have more energy storage than petroleum liquids, geothermal, wood and wood waste, or landfill gas by the end of this year.

There are over 300 utility-scale battery storage projects planned to be brought online by 2025, with roughly half of them being in Texas. Currently, the largest operating battery energy storage system (BESS) is a project operated by Vistra in Moss Landing, California, which has 750 MW of capacity and is located not far from Tesla’s 182.5 MW Megapack site in the same city.

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Four out of five of the largest BESS installations set to take place in 2024 or 2025 are in Texas, as listed below:

  • Lunis Creek BESS SLF (Texas, 621 MW)
  • Clear Fork Creek BESS SLF (Texas, 600 MW)
  • Hecate Energy Ramsey Storage (Texas, 500 MW)
  • Bellefield Solar and Energy Storage Farm (California, 500 MW)
  • Dogwood Creek Solar and BESS (Texas, 443 MW)

As for the recent increases in storage capacity, the agency says that quickly increasing wind and solar generation fleets in California and Texas have increased the need for growth in the battery storage sector. With energy storage projects, utility operators are able to store power during times of low electricity demand and then deploy stored energy during times of peak demand.

Credit: Energy Information Administration

The news comes just a few days after Tesla Megapacks went live on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, enabling a 185 MW project that has helped the island move away from the use of coal. The project isn’t represented in the EIA’s dataset, since that data only accounts for installations through last November.

In addition to its grid-scale Megapacks, Tesla also offers smaller, residential-level Powerpacks to create what it calls Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), essentially forming giant, distributed batteries that customers can use to sell energy back to the grid in times of peak demand. Currently, Tesla has pilots for these programs in states including California, Texas and Massachusetts, along with the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

Tesla Powerwall owner earns $574 by participating in California’s VPP program

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send your tips to us at tips@teslarati.com.

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Zach is a renewable energy reporter who has been covering electric vehicles since 2020. He grew up in Fremont, California, and he currently lives in Colorado. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, KRON4 San Francisco, FOX31 Denver, InsideEVs, CleanTechnica, and many other publications. When he isn't covering Tesla or other EV companies, you can find him writing and performing music, drinking a good cup of coffee, or hanging out with his cats, Banks and Freddie. Reach out at zach@teslarati.com, find him on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

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Tesla offers tasty Supercharging incentive as Q3 push continues

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is offering a tasty Supercharging incentive on inventory Model 3 units in Canada as it continues to push sales in the third quarter.

In the United States, Tesla is preparing for the end of the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. While it is offering a multitude of incentives in the U.S. to help push sales of its vehicles before the credit goes away, it is not saving the deals for Americans exclusively.

Yesterday, the company announced it is now offering Free Supercharging for life on all Model 3 inventory in Canada, a massive incentive for those who would use the vehicle as a daily driver:

The deal would normally only apply to Superchargers located in Canada, meaning if a Canadian drove over the border into the United States and Supercharged, they would have to pay for it.

However, Tesla also confirmed that the charging deal would extend to the U.S. Canadians will be able to drive across the U.S. and Supercharge for free for the life of the vehicle.

Free Supercharging is such a great perk because the money an owner saves on charging factors directly into what they are saving if they were to own a gas car. While Supercharging and home charging are, on average, cheaper than filling up with gas, the savings are not massive.

When Supercharging is free, it can save consumers hundreds of dollars per month, especially if they plan to use the Tesla for their daily commute. Some people could fill their gas cars up two times a week to get to work, spending $80-$100 every five days on gas.

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Tesla has been using incentives like this to push vehicles into customers’ hands. Q3 could be one of the best three-month spans in recent memory with the push it is making.

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Tesla is preparing to take on autonomy’s final boss

India’s city streets are notorious for their complexity and congestion.

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Credit: Whole Mars Catalog/YouTube

If there is any sign that Tesla is now confident about its self-driving program, it would be this. As could be seen on Tesla’s Careers page, the company is now hiring Autopilot Vehicle Operators in Delhi and Mumbai, India. 

As far as real-world traffic is concerned, one could argue that India’s city streets are the final boss of autonomous driving systems due to their complexity and congestion.

Tesla job openings

As per Tesla in its recent job openings, Prototype Vehicle Operators will be responsible for driving an engineering vehicle for extended periods and conducting dynamic audio and camera data collection for testing and training purposes. In both its job listings for Mumbai and Delhi, Tesla noted that successful applicants will be gathering real-world data on the weekends and around the clock. 

Considering the job openings in India, Tesla seems to be intent on rolling out its advanced driver-assist systems like FSD in the country. This is quite interesting, as Tesla is not hiring Prototype Vehicle Operators in other territories that recently launched, such as the Philippines. Perhaps Tesla intends to tackle FSD’s final boss of sorts before rolling out FSD in other territories.

FSD’s rollout

Tesla’s autonomous driving program uses the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which is currently available on vehicles in North America and China. Tesla, however, has a more advanced version of FSD called Unsupervised FSD, which is currently being used in vehicles that are part of the Robotaxi pilot in Austin and the Bay Area.

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Elon Musk has also recently announced on X that Tesla will be releasing FSD V14 in the coming weeks. He also shared a number of improvements that can be expected from FSD V14. “The FSD release in about 6 weeks will be a dramatic gain with a 10X higher parameter count and many other improvements. It’s going through training & testing now. Once we confirm real-world safety of FSD 14, which we think will be amazing, the car will nag you much less,” Musk wrote in his post. 

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Tesla Sweden finally makes IF Metall union give up 600-day strike

Tesla and the union have opened the door to resolutions that do not involve a collective agreement.

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Tesla-sweden-expansion-if-metall-strike
(Credit: NicklasNilsso14)

After nearly two years of industrial action and sympathy strikes, Swedish labor union IF Metall has stated that it is softening its stance in its dispute with Tesla. With this, Tesla and the union have opened the door to resolutions that do not involve a collective agreement. 

Union chair Marie Nilsson told Sveriges Radio’s Ekot that while the preferred outcome remains a signed agreement, “other alternative solutions” are now on the table.

Union reconsiders rigid demands

The strike, which began over 600 days ago, has been marked by a series of strategic moves from both sides. IF Metall blocked Tesla’s access to license plates by targeting mail delivery, while Tesla bypassed the restrictions by importing vehicles in bulk through German ferries to Trelleborg, among other strategies. 

Despite the high-profile tactics, the number of active strikers has been relatively small, just about 60 in total, as noted in a CarUp report. Tesla Sweden has also maintained that it does not intend to bow down to the union’s demands. Over the 600-day strike, Tesla Sweden has adapted its operations to get around the union and its allies’ strikes.

Possible paths to ultimate resolution

Nilsson, for her part, noted that IF Metall is now willing to explore alternatives, such as embedding industry-standard terms directly into Tesla’s employment contracts or shifting Tesla’s Swedish operations to a company that already has a collective agreement.

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“You can do it in different ways. The easiest thing would be to sign a collective agreement. But when that is not possible, we have to find other alternative solutions as well, so we are open to discussion,” Nilsson stated.

IF Metall, if any, has acknowledged that Tesla has already improved working conditions in Sweden since the dispute began. Tesla Sweden has argued that its working conditions are already better than union standards, which is reportedly one of the reasons why very few company employees actually participated in IF Metall’s strike.

“There have been conversations throughout the journey where we compared our conditions. Tesla has adjusted details without going into details, they want to be a good employer, it’s about wages and conditions,” Nilsson stated.

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