Energy
Tesla to end Home Depot partnership as it closes 12 solar facilities: report
Tesla is closing around a dozen of its solar facilities across nine states in the United States. The closures of the solar sites are reportedly part of the company’s ongoing restructuring, which is set to lay off 9% of Tesla’s workforce.
According to Reuters, the information comes from three internal company documents and statements from seven present and former Tesla employees. The documents accessed by the publication state that the latest cuts to the division come from a part of the company that was once SolarCity. Tesla’s partnership with Home Depot to push sales of its solar solutions and Powerwall 2 home batteries is set to be discontinued as well. According to Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes, its partnership with Tesla would last through the end of 2018, after which it would continue a partnership with competitor Sunrun in a number of its stores.
An internal company list reviewed by Reuters added that after the closures of the solar facilities, about 60 solar installation sites would remain open. The facilities that will be closed are reportedly located in California, Texas, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Arizona. Solar customer service staff at call centers in Utah and Nevada have also been reportedly laid off by the company.
A Tesla Powerwall 2 displayed in a Home Depot outlet. [Credit: Xixu/Twitter]
With the Home Depot partnership terminated, Tesla will now push its solar solutions through its own stores. Personnel from the facilities that are set to be closed are being transferred to other sites as well. In a statement to Reuters, Tesla noted that the company still expects to grow its solar and battery business over time.
“We continue to expect that Tesla’s solar and battery business will be the same size as automotive over the long term. Tesla stores have some of the highest foot traffic of any retail space in the country,” the company said.
While stopping its partnership with Home Depot might come off as alarming, GTM Research analyst Austin Perea noted that the deal might have been discontinued as a means to reduce unnecessary expenses. While the Home Depot partnership accounted for a significant number of solar and energy sales for Tesla, third-party retail partnerships are among the most expensive means of generating sales in the solar industry. According to Perea, the cost of winning a customer through Home Depot could cost up to $7,000 per system, roughly 45% more compared to the national average of $4,000 per installation.
Tesla’s energy business is steadily growing, however. Last month, CTO JB Straubel noted in a statement to Fast Company that Tesla had installed 1 GWh worth of energy storage to date, an impressive figure that was reiterated by Elon Musk during the company’s 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting. During the investors’ event, Musk noted that Tesla would be doing another 1 GWh project less than a year from now, with more growth set to happen within the next few years. As could be seen in Tesla’s 10-Q form for Q1 2018, the company’s energy and storage revenue increased 92% in the three months ended March 31, 2008 year-on-year, primarily due to the earnings of the 129 MWh Powerpack farm in South Australia, which generated $72.5 million on its own.
Tesla continues to deploy its energy solutions to several projects across the globe. Currently, Tesla is involved in roughly 11,000 projects in Puerto Rico, where it continues to help communities damaged by Hurricane Maria get back on their feet. Tesla is also starting on the beginnings of a virtual power plant in South Australia involving 50,000 residential homes fitted with Powerwall 2 home batteries and residential solar.
Energy
Tesla launches Cybertruck vehicle-to-grid program in Texas
The initiative was announced by the official Tesla Energy account on social media platform X.
Tesla has launched a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) program in Texas, allowing eligible Cybertruck owners to send energy back to the grid during high-demand events and receive compensation on their utility bills.
The initiative, dubbed Powershare Grid Support, was announced by the official Tesla Energy account on social media platform X.
Texas’ Cybertruck V2G program
In its post on X, Tesla Energy confirmed that vehicle-to-grid functionality is “coming soon,” starting with select Texas markets. Under the new Powershare Grid Support program, owners of the Cybertruck equipped with Powershare home backup hardware can opt in through the Tesla app and participate in short-notice grid stress events.
During these events, the Cybertruck automatically discharges excess energy back to the grid, supporting local utilities such as CenterPoint Energy and Oncor. In return, participants receive compensation in the form of bill credits. Tesla noted that the program is currently invitation-only as part of an early adopter rollout.
The launch builds on the Cybertruck’s existing Powershare capability, which allows the vehicle to provide up to 11.5 kW of power for home backup. Tesla added that the program is expected to expand to California next, with eligibility tied to utilities such as PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E.
Powershare Grid Support
To participate in Texas, Cybertruck owners must live in areas served by CenterPoint Energy or Oncor, have Powershare equipment installed, enroll in the Tesla Electric Drive plan, and opt in through the Tesla app. Once enrolled, vehicles would be able to contribute power during high-demand events, helping stabilize the grid.
Tesla noted that events may occur with little notice, so participants are encouraged to keep their Cybertrucks plugged in when at home and to manage their discharge limits based on personal needs. Compensation varies depending on the electricity plan, similar to how Powerwall owners in some regions have earned substantial credits by participating in Virtual Power Plant (VPP) programs.
Tesla is updating Cybertruck owners on its timeline of a massive feature that has yet to ship: Powershare with Powerwall.
Powershare is a bidirectional charging feature exclusive to Cybertruck, which allows the vehicle’s battery to act as a portable power source for homes, appliances, tools, other EVs, and more. It was announced in late 2023 as part of Tesla’s push into vehicle-to-everything energy sharing, and acting as a giant portable charger is the main advantage, as it can provide backup power during outages.
Cybertruck’s Powershare system supports both vehicle-to-load (V2L) and vehicle-to-home (V2H), making it flexible and well-rounded for a variety of applications.
However, even though the feature was promised with Cybertruck, it has yet to be shipped to vehicles. Tesla communicated with owners through email recently regarding Powershare with Powerwall, which essentially has the pickup act as an extended battery.
Powerwall discharge would be prioritized before tapping into the truck’s larger pack.
However, Tesla is still working on getting the feature out to owners, an email said:
“We’re writing to let you know that the Powershare with Powerwall feature is still in development and is now scheduled for release in mid-2026.
This new release date gives us additional time to design and test this feature, ensuring its ability to communicate and optimize energy sharing between your vehicle and many configurations and generations of Powerwall. We are also using this time to develop additional Powershare features that will help us continue to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
Owners have expressed some real disappointment in Tesla’s continuous delays in releasing the feature, as it was expected to be released by late 2024, but now has been pushed back several times to mid-2026, according to the email.
Foundation Series Cybertruck buyers paid extra, expecting the feature to be rolled out with their vehicle upon pickup.
Cybertruck’s Lead Engineer, Wes Morrill, even commented on the holdup:
As a Cybertruck owner who also has Powerwall, I empathize with the disappointed comments.
To their credit, the team has delivered powershare functionality to Cybertruck customers who otherwise have no backup with development of the powershare gateway. As well as those with solar…
— Wes (@wmorrill3) December 12, 2025
He said that “it turned out to be much harder than anticipated to make powershare work seamlessly with existing Powerwalls through existing wall connectors. Two grid-forming devices need to negotiate who will form and who will follow, depending on the state of charge of each, and they need to do this without a network and through multiple generations of hardware, and test and validate this process through rigorous certifications to ensure grid safety.”
It’s nice to see the transparency, but it is justified for some Cybertruck owners to feel like they’ve been bait-and-switched.
Energy
Tesla starts hiring efforts for Texas Megafactory
Tesla’s Brookshire site is expected to produce 10,000 Megapacks annually, equal to 40 gigawatt hours of energy storage.
Tesla has officially begun hiring for its new $200 million Megafactory in Brookshire, Texas, a manufacturing hub expected to employ 1,500 people by 2028. The facility, which will build Tesla’s grid-scale Megapack batteries, is part of the company’s growing energy storage footprint.
Tesla’s hiring efforts for the Texas Megafactory are hinted at by the job openings currently active on the company’s Careers website.
Tesla’s Texas Megafactory
Tesla’s Brookshire site is expected to produce 10,000 Megapacks annually, equal to 40 gigawatt hours of energy storage, similar to the Lathrop Megafactory in California. Tesla’s Careers website currently lists over 30 job openings for the site, from engineers, welders, and project managers. Each of the openings is listed for Brookshire, Texas.
The company has leased two buildings in Empire West Business Park, with over $194 million in combined property and equipment investment. Tesla’s agreement with Waller County includes a 60% property tax abatement, contingent on meeting employment benchmarks: 375 jobs by 2026, 750 by 2027, and 1,500 by 2028, as noted in a report from the Houston Business Journal. Tesla is required to employ at least 1,500 workers in the facility through the rest of the 10-year abatement period.
Tesla’s clean energy boom
City officials have stated that Tesla’s arrival marks a turning point for the Texas city, as it highlights a shift from logistics to advanced clean energy manufacturing. Ramiro Bautista from Brookshire’s economic development office, highlighted this in a comment to the Journal.
“(Tesla) has great-paying jobs. Not just that, but the advanced manufacturing (and) clean energy is coming to the area,” he said. “So it’s not just your normal logistics manufacturing. This is advanced manufacturing coming to this area, and this brings a different type of job and investment into the local economy.”
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