Tesla's vision of a future EV + solar + battery storage is set to become the industry standard

April 7, 2019 by Carolyn Fortuna

Part of the fascination of investors for Tesla has long been in the evolution of hardware and software manufacturing. The energy production and storage integration plan – "to create breathtaking solar roofs with perfectly integrated battery storage", as described in the Second Part of the Development Plan, also appealed. While Tesla's acquisition of SolarCity and the way it was integrated into Tesla has been controversial, solar energy is a necessary part of Tesla's vision of EV + solar + storage for a sustainable future.

On April 6, Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, went to Buffalo to visit the RiverBend Factory, a 90-hectare site located at a turn of the Buffalo River. The media, factory workers and Tesla fans were all beating. No, Musk did not spend a lot of time on the so-called Gigafactory 2 (but maybe not before), but he personally oversaw the design and testing of the solar tiles that make up the roofing product next-generation solar of Tesla.

Photo of dmoberhaus on Foter.com / CC BY

Tesla's vision for an independent future in renewable energy is increasingly weighing on people, and Musk says it will be the biggest year yet (by far) for the energy portion of the company.

The energy triumvirate: transport, domestic solar energy and battery storage

What happens when a family chooses to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a renewable energy system including a fully electric electric vehicle, a solar system with twenty panels and a smart battery located in the cellar?

On sunny days, photovoltaic panels can meet all the electricity needs of the home and recharge the battery of their car. Once these areas are reconstructed, the energy generated on the roofs can meet the needs of the fixed battery, increasing the capacity of the house with respect to the energy demand during the night and in cloudy weather. If all these needs are met, the unit's digital control system automatically sends any excess energy to the grid, usually providing the family with compensation from the local network company.

What does the three-way renewable energy system provide? It provides security against rising energy costs. In the context of the Internet of Things, the connected software of the system can allow the family to evaluate how the system produces, consumes and stores electricity. It can also control which part of the solar output is directed to the grid.

One out of every two solar roof panels in Germany is now sold with a battery storage system. 120,000 households and small businesses using solar energy are only a small part of Germany's 81 million, but battery prices have dropped so much that the German development bank has eliminated the 2013-2018 batteries, which had reduced costs by 30%.

Although 2018 was not as strong as expected for US solar companies, low component prices boosted volume demand in 2019. In the US, the SEIA (Solar Energy Industry Association) has increased its forecast for solar installations from 2020 to 2023: 3.2 GW by the end of 2018 due to a wave of large-scale project signatures. And as consumer solar systems continue to be competitive in many places, the same goes for solar roof systems.

The price tag of a renewable energy residential building depends on many factors, such as the size of the dwelling, the orientation of the building towards the sun, and the choice of electric vehicles, solar panels, batteries, and lighting systems. management. What is certain is that thanks to a high-end technology and a lot of sun, the owner can save considerably on his electricity bills.

Tesla's vision of energy independence is making its way around the world

Tesla Powerwall, a retail energy storage solution, is already being used to store energy from large scale renewable energies. In the fourth quarter of 2018, Tesla's energy generation and storage activities totaled $ 371.5 million (up almost 25% from the previous year).

With growing concerns about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels and the capacity and resilience of energy networks around the world, engineers and decision makers are increasingly turning to their own energy storage solutions. Analysts are finding consensus: the green future of an electric vehicle in each garage, a solar power station on each roof and a battery in each basement is now more pragmatic than romantic. Evidence is gathering around us to show how renewable energy and batteries will fundamentally transform the electrical system.

As batteries become cheaper and more powerful, they will increasingly store the uneven production of wind and solar power. If in doubt, just look in Florida, where the Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) announced plans to build the world's largest battery-powered storage system adjacent to an existing solar power plant. Other storage systems will soon appear in Florida. Thus, along with improving the efficiency of existing combustion turbines in other plants, FPL will be able to replace 1,638 MW of traditional production capacity.

FPL's increased knowledge of optimizing solar power and batteries, as well as the rapidly declining cost of new technologies, is an important indicator for utilities in the United States and around the world.

Then there is ScottishPower, which unveiled a $ 2.65 billion investment program for 2019 aimed at targeting large scale battery storage and public electric vehicle charging points. The investment, the company's largest in a single year, comes after the sale of ScottishPower's thermal generation business at the end of last year.

The funds allocated to 2019 are part of a larger investment program, triple the amount, planned between 2018 and 2022. These amounts amount to 40% for the new generation of renewable energy, 42% for the networks. more intelligent and 15% for innovative networks. services and products for the approximately 5 million customers of the company.

Picture of winterseitler / pixabay

Producer of electrical systems Siemens Corp. will partner with three energy research and development labs of the US Department of Energy to test new technologies to strengthen the supply, options and resilience of electricity in the coming years:

• National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado;
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and,
• Northwestern Pacific National Laboratory, Richland, Washington.

This collaboration is expected to leverage Siemens' experience in the commercialization of innovative power system technologies by providing its Software Defined Inverter (SDI) technology, which, once validated, could be incorporated into the news. technologies to strengthen and modernize the country's electricity grid, including micro-grids and distributed energy. resources such as energy storage.

Last thoughts

Tesla's first grid battery in South Australia has paved the way for a virtual plant plan that will include solar rooftop systems on 50,000 homes over the next four years and link them to networked storage facilities to create the largest virtual solar power plant in history. This project has training effects that are felt all over the world. Governments that have the political will to participate in such transformation programs are at the heart of everything.

According to a report, the global market for energy storage systems is expected to grow from $ 196.7 billion in 2017 to $ 301.4 billion by 2025. The Energy Storage Association, a US-based business group, says the global energy storage market will grow exponentially to reach an annual installation size of more than 40 GW by 2022, from now on. Initial base of 0.34 GW installed in 2012 and 2013.

The economy and the release of fossil fuels are not always the main motivation for buyers of battery systems. Many people want to be independent of electricity companies and rising prices. Others just want to be part of the future. There are several reasons for getting a battery storage. These reasons are affecting more and more consumers, big and small.

Keywords: Elon Musk, FPL, Scottish Power, Siemens, Tesla, Tesla Energy, Tesla Powerwall, Tesla Solar

About the author

Carolyn Fortuna Carolyn Fortuna, Ph.D. is a writer, researcher and educator who has always been involved in eco-justice. She has won awards from the Anti-Defamation League, the International Association for Literacy and the Leavy Foundation. It shapes scholarship in digital media and learns to raise awareness of sustainable development issues. Please follow me on Twitter and Facebook and Google+