Energy
Tesla CTO JB Straubel reveals 1 GWh milestone in energy storage projects
Tesla CTO and co-founder JB Straubel recently revealed that the company’s energy division had hit a milestone — since 2015, Tesla has installed a worldwide total of 1 GWh worth of energy storage. Such a figure is almost half of the total energy storage installed across the world in 2017.
“It’s at a scale now where it’s undeniably making an impact. We see it as absolutely core to our mission as a company of accelerating sustainability. Electric vehicles, where we started, are one critical piece of that puzzle. They’re an enabler for using sustainable energy and transportation, but they need to be linked to an energy generation source.
“We really want to solve this all the way, with a big-picture mindset of truly solving the problem, not just providing someone a piece of the [solution] and then they have to go and figure out how to charge their car sustainably,” Straubel said, according to a Fast Company report.
Straubel’s statements bode well for Tesla’s energy business. While competitors such as South Korea’s LG and China’s BYD are emerging in the energy storage market, the California-based company has nonetheless established a lead in the emerging industry. Tesla has started the year strong, installing 373 MWh of energy storage projects during the first quarter alone.
Straubel reiterated Tesla’s goal of increasing its energy business threefold this 2018. According to the CTO, however, even if Tesla manages to scale its energy business 300% this year, transitioning the world to sustainable energy will still take a considerable amount of time. Ultimately, Straubel called on other energy companies to get involved.
“Even at 300%, we’ll need to grow it this way for decades, frankly, to really solve the problem. And not just us, but other companies need to get involved, too,” Straubel said.
Tesla’s energy business could very well be the dark horse of the Elon Musk-led company. While discussing the South Australia Powerpack farm near Jamestown during the company’s Q1 2018 earnings call, Musk teased that he is confident that Tesla would be able to announce a “gigawatt-hour scale deal within a matter of months.” Such a project would positively affect Tesla’s earnings, considering that its energy storage initiatives have so far proven to be lucrative.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Tesla’s 129 MWh Powerpack farm in SA earned $1 million in a few days back in January. Tesla’s 10-Q form for Q1 2018 also revealed that Tesla Energy’s revenue for the first quarter reached $410 million, a 92% increase from Q1 2017. Perhaps more importantly, however, the 10-Q form also provided the first real glimpse into how much revenue Tesla can gain from its large energy projects. Below is an excerpt from Tesla’s 10-Q form for Q1 2018.
“Energy generation and storage revenue increased by $196.1 million, or 92%, in the three months ended March 31, 2018 as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2017, predominantly due to increase in Powerpack and Powerwall deliveries as well as $72.5 million revenue related to the South Australia battery project.”
Tesla’s big battery near Jamestown is but the tip of the iceberg for the company’s energy initiatives. Currently, Tesla is in the process of rolling out the first phase of its proposed 50,000-strong virtual power plant comprised of solar panels and Powerwall 2 batteries in Australia. Elon Musk also revealed that Tesla has about 11,000 ongoing energy storage projects in Puerto Rico, where the company is helping the island nation get back on its feet after getting hit by Hurricane Maria last year. If Tesla does announce a 1-GWh scale energy storage project in 2018, Elon Musk’s prediction that the company would be profitable by Q3 or Q4 2018 becomes even more plausible.
Elon Musk
Google just picked SpaceX for its first step into orbital AI
Google will launch its first Project Suncatcher AI satellite on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare next week.
Google is about to put its own AI chips into orbit for the first time, and it is paying SpaceX to get them there.
The company said Thursday that the first in-orbit test of Project Suncatcher, its research effort to find out whether space can host large-scale AI computing, will fly next week on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission.
The satellite, called MVP, is about the size of a refrigerator and carries four of Google’s Tensor Processing Units, the same chips Google runs in its ground data centers. Google originally planned to launch two custom satellites in 2027, but chose to move faster by integrating its chips into a satellite.
MVP’s solar panels supply about one kilowatt of power, and Google will run Gemini models on the TPUs only in bursts of roughly 15 minutes before the chips shut down so the radiators can shed heat. In a blog post, Google said its Trillium TPUs survived vibration testing that mimicked sustained launch loads of up to 10g, with individual components seeing 50 to 100g, and handled a radiation dose greater than a five year mission would deliver.
SpaceX and Google mull massive partnership on Musk’s orbital data dream: report
Next week’s flight, slated for October 1, follows a relationship that became public in May, when Teslarati reported that Google was in talks with SpaceX for a launch deal tied to orbital data centers. Google also holds a stake of roughly 6% in SpaceX.
The two companies are chasing the same idea from very different starting points. SpaceX’s own orbital compute program is built around the AI1 satellite, a roughly 70 meter structure derived from Starlink V3 hardware that is designed for 150 kW of peak compute, about 150 times the power MVP will draw. Elon Musk has brushed off concerns about crowding orbit with those satellites, and SpaceX is building its Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas, to produce them, targeting an annualized rate of about 1 GW of space compute by the end of 2027.
Musk also posted on X on Thursday that “the amount of compute in space will obviously round up to 100% of all compute.”
Google has been more cautious in public. Its research estimates that launch prices need to fall below about $200 per kilogram before an orbital data center can compete with a ground facility on energy cost, a threshold the company believes could be reached around the mid 2030s. The Suncatcher team has said it expects the effort to remain a project rather than a product for years, which leaves the first real test of its hardware riding on a rocket from the company with the most aggressive timeline in the field.
Energy
Tesla Semi factory is getting a celebration nobody expected
Tesla will inaugurate its Nevada Semi factory September 24, five months after production quietly began ramping.
Tesla says it will officially inaugurate its new Semi factory in Nevada next month. The Tesla Semi account posted the announcement on X, sharing a graphic titled “Semi Rollout” with a date of September 24. No further details were given about the format of the event or who would attend.
While Tesla’s dedicated Semi plant in Sparks, adjacent to Gigafactory Nevada, opened back in April, with the first trucks rolling off the high volume line on April 29, the timing for the factory inauguration comes at a surprise. The ribbon cutting event five months into production is a break from how Tesla has usually handled its other factories, where the first truck or car off the line typically served as the milestone moment.
Inauguration of new Semi factory in Nevada next month pic.twitter.com/a8kAlxrOOn
— Tesla Semi (@tesla_semi) August 24, 2026
The 1.7 million square foot factory was built as part of a $3.6 billion expansion Tesla announced in early 2023, and it shares a site with the battery cell lines that feed the Semi’s structural pack, a decision meant to remove the supply bottleneck that delayed the truck for years. The plant is designed for 50,000 trucks a year at full ramp. Semi program director Dan Priestley has said production “is now ramping” rather than claiming it has reached scale.
Nine years passed between the Semi’s 2017 unveiling and this stage of production, with the truck slipping from an original 2019 target through hand built pilot units for PepsiCo and a slow build out of the Nevada plant. An inauguration event now gives Tesla a stage to talk up that ramp and reset expectations for how many trucks it can begin delivering at scale.
The September date also lines up with the Semi’s next milestone. Tesla confirmed the truck is heading to Europe with a full unveiling at the IAA Transportation trade show in Hannover, Germany, running September 15 through 20. Between the Nevada event and the Hannover reveal, Tesla has roughly a week and a half in September to make the case that the Semi is now a truck being built and sold on two continents rather than tested in a handful of fleets.
Tesla Energy has introduced the Powerwall Lease in conjunction with Tesla Electric, making the service available in Texas. This new option delivers whole-home backup power using two Powerwall units for a net monthly cost of $35 after credits, accompanied by a low fixed electricity rate.
Under the lease terms, customers pay a one-time order fee of $100. The base lease payment for the two Powerwalls is approximately $122 per month during the first year, subject to a 3 percent annual escalator thereafter. Enrollment in a qualifying Tesla Electric Backup plan or Virtual Power Plant plan provides an $87 monthly credit.
Powerwall Lease is now available with Tesla Electric in Texas
Whole-home backup for $35/month, with a low fixed electricity rate
– Two Powerwalls, $0 installation
– Storm Watch outage protection
– One app to manage it all pic.twitter.com/oTzqc6K3aF— Tesla Energy (@teslaenergy) August 13, 2026
This credit lowers the effective cost to roughly $35 per month plus applicable tax.
Installation of the standard system carries no additional charge. The package features Storm Watch for outage protection and allows complete management through a single Tesla application. The system supplies continuous whole-home backup capability.
The Powerwall system enables households to maintain electricity during severe storms that disrupt the utility grid. When outages occur, the batteries automatically provide seamless backup power to the home.
Tesla announces 100k Powerwalls are participating in Virtual Power Plants
Tesla Storm Watch monitors weather forecasts and ensures the units are fully charged ahead of anticipated severe weather events so that power remains available throughout the disruption, keeping lights, refrigeration, and other essential systems operating without interruption.
Availability is restricted to select Texas locations where retail electric choice exists. Participants must lease exactly two Powerwall units and maintain continuous enrollment with Tesla Electric. Solar panels cannot be included under this particular lease arrangement.
The monthly credit activates automatically once the system is installed, receives permission to operate, and enrollment is confirmed. To retain the credit, customers are required to stay enrolled in Tesla Electric and fulfill all program conditions.
Nonstandard installations that involve electrical upgrades or special permitting may lead to extra expenses and might impact eligibility for the credit, so be sure to check with either your installer or Tesla to ensure you will still qualify.
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