• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion

2

'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic

3

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

1

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion

2

'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic

3

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
Tech

Top five takeaways from Elon Musk’s Tesla Energy reveal

By
Kirsten Korosec
Kirsten Korosec
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kirsten Korosec
Kirsten Korosec
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 1, 2015, 1:06 PM ET
Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk Unveils New Generation Of Batteries
Elon MuskPhotograph by TIm Rue — Bloomberg via Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

A lot was said—behind the scenes and on stage—at Tesla’s big reveal event Thursday night in Hawthorne, Calif. The recap: the tech-centric automaker is expanding beyond electric vehicles and launching a line of battery products that will allow homeowners, businesses and utilities to store energy, manage backup power—and ultimately, enable zero-emission power generation. Tesla’s (TSLA) partners include Amazon, Target, global PV inverter company SolarEdge, energy software firm EnerNoc, Advanced Grid Solutions, AES and utility Southern California Edison.

CEO Elon Musk took the stage amid cheers from 1,000 invited guests to introduce the new endeavor, dubbed Tesla Energy, and its two primary products.

Musk first unveiled Powerwall, a sleek suitcase-sized 220-pound lithium-ion battery designed to store energy at the residential level, comes in 7 kilowatt-hour and 10 kWh sizes. The home energy battery, which has a 10-year warranty, is designed to be mounted on a wall and includes integrated thermal management, power electric, and a bi-directional DC inverter.

Musk described the home unit as a source of backup power which, when combined with solar panels, could be used daily to extend the environmental and cost benefits of solar after the sun has gone down. Tesla’s selling price to installers is $3,500 for 10 kWh and $3,000 for 7 kWh. Orders are being taken now and deliveries will begin this summer.

SolarCity (SCTY) CTO Peter Rive told me at the event that the company will charge customers $5,000 for the 10 kWh unit, a price that includes installation and an inverter to convert direct current power to alternating current for use in the home.

Musk also introduced Tesla’s Powerpack a scalable energy storage unit for heavy industrial and utility applications. The Powerpack will be sold in 100 kWh units and can be scaled up into multi gigawatt-hour class. The power packs are priced a $250 a kilowatt hour, Musk said.

Before the official launch, Musk and Tesla co-founder and CTO JB Straubel spoke to reporters about Tesla Energy. Here are five statements by Musk that stood out:

Musk’s long-term vision for Tesla Energy isn’t lacking in aspiration.

“Our goal is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy at the extreme scale. We’re talking at the terawatt scale.”

Tesla Energy will go global.

“We expect to scale this internationally. It’ll scale as fast as we can scale it.” Straubel added that Tesla Energy will have a presence in parts of Europe, especially Germany, as well as in Australia by end of this year. The company will expand into China by next year.

By the way, are there any patents on these new products? Fuhgetaboutit.

“Tesla’s policy of open sourcing its patents will continue even with Powerwall and Powerpack and the gigafactory. And so we are hopeful that many others will follow our path and if somebody is able to make better battery solution than us, I’d be the first to congratulate them.”

About that gigafactory in Nevada… expect more.

“We think of the gigafactory as a custom-made machine. We’re designing the gigafactory the same way we designed the Model S, as though it was a very giant car. It’s a fundamentally different way of approaching manufacturing engineering than traditionally done. So the machines that are going into the gigafactory are all custom designed for that facility. And so what we really have is gigafactory version 1 . We always think of the gigafactory as a product of Tesla’s. And we expect to make many gigafactories.”

Musk explained that the energy storage packs will be made initially at its Fremont, Calif., factory and will shift over to the first phase of the gigafactory.

The two products are connected to the Internet.

“All of the power walls and power packs are connected to the Internet and so we’re actually able to get real-time feedback. We’re able to work with the utilities to shift power around and actually manage the grid and we’ll integrate obviously with software like SolarCity’s. If there are other companies out there with compatible software like SolarCity we’ll integrate with theirs too.”

Straubel picked up the riff: “The batteries are very smart internally. They have all the same data and computation capability that the car packs do. So they can send the information to whoever wants to use it, redisplay it, or control it in different ways.”

About the Author
By Kirsten Korosec
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

LaLiga president says tech is already making the fan experience better, and it could solve football’s money problem too
AISports
LaLiga president says tech is already making the fan experience better, and it could solve football’s money problem too
By Catherina GioinoJuly 20, 2026
3 hours ago
A 13-year-old teenage boy looks at an iPhone screen displaying various social media apps.
PoliticsSocial Media
French President Macron backs effort to ban kids under 15 from social media before departing office next year
By The Associated Press and Samuel PetrequinJuly 20, 2026
4 hours ago
Photo of Hugging Face cofounder and CEO Clement Delangue.
CybersecurityAI agents
Hugging Face says it resorted to a Chinese AI model to battle a fully autonomous cyberattack because U.S. model guardrails stymied its defense
By Emily ForliniJuly 20, 2026
5 hours ago
Sumeet Agrawal is VP of Product Management (Data, AI Governance & Context Engineering for Agentic Systems) at Salesforce.
CommentaryAI agents
Salesforce VP on the leaky AI pipeline: why cheaper tokens won’t fix enterprise AI
By Sumeet AgrawalJuly 20, 2026
10 hours ago
Artificial Intelligence technology and futuristic technology transformation
C-SuiteCFO Daily
How CFOs can tell if AI is actually creating value
By Sheryl EstradaJuly 20, 2026
11 hours ago
uk
PoliticsSocial Media
France wants to ban social media for kids — but Brussels says the bill breaks EU law
By Samuel Petrequin and The Associated PressJuly 20, 2026
11 hours ago

Most Popular

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
Success
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
By Sydney LakeJuly 20, 2026
10 hours ago
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
AI
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
By Jason MaJuly 18, 2026
2 days ago
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
Success
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 20, 2026
6 hours ago
Power companies are using eminent domain to seize land for data centers as 70% of Americans say not in my backyard
AI
Power companies are using eminent domain to seize land for data centers as 70% of Americans say not in my backyard
By Aaron Walayat and The ConversationJuly 19, 2026
2 days ago
Warren Buffett says his $147 billion investing career was an accident: ‘I may be one of the 10 luckiest in the world’
Future of Work
Warren Buffett says his $147 billion investing career was an accident: ‘I may be one of the 10 luckiest in the world’
By Sarah GlodekJuly 20, 2026
17 hours ago
Red Lobster’s 37-year-old CEO waited tables before joining the C-suite—he says it was a crash course in managing ‘difficult people and situations’
Success
Red Lobster’s 37-year-old CEO waited tables before joining the C-suite—he says it was a crash course in managing ‘difficult people and situations’
By Preston ForeJuly 19, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.