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

Trendingnow

1

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

2

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow

1

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

2

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
Tech

Tesla’s grid battery ambitions hinge on three crucial factors

By
Kirsten Korosec
Kirsten Korosec
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kirsten Korosec
Kirsten Korosec
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 30, 2015, 11:12 AM ET
Video Poster
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

If the trickle of Twitter teasers, the recent note to shareholders, and comments from CEO Elon Musk haven’t been enough to express Tesla Motors’ growing grid battery ambitions, than perhaps the $65 million in rebates slated for the company’s 2014 energy storage projects gets the message across.

Tesla (TSLA) is no longer just a tech-inclined manufacturer of all-electric cars—a description many at the company don’t adhere to anyway. Is it a technology company that happens to make batteries and highly stylized electric cars? Or is it an “energy innovator” as Tesla’s co-founder and CTO JB Straubel envisions?

Tonight we might find out. In a highly anticipated (and hyped) media event hosted by Tesla at their design studio in Hawthorne, Calif., Musk plans to fill in the details–or so we hope—on Tesla’s energy storage plans.

Tesla’s interest in energy storage isn’t, and shouldn’t be, a surprise. As noted by Fortune this week, Tesla has been working on energy storage for five years now. And the company plans to produce 50 gigawatt hours per year of capacity of battery packs, compared to just 35 gigawatt hours of capacity for the individual cells that are housed in the packs, at its gigafactory in Reno, Nevada. The additional 15 gigawatt hours per year of battery pack capacity will be used to build stationary battery packs, Straubel told an audience at the 2014 Energy Storage Symposium last May.

But even with all this activity, many details are unknown. Here’s what we’ll be paying attention to at tonight’s event in Hawthorne, Calif.

Products

Tesla’s residential energy storage product—which is bundled with SolarCity (SCTY) rooftop solar panels—is in more than 300 California homes. Its 400 kilowatt-hour commercial battery packs are installed at 11 Walmart stores, two BG’s Wholesale Club sites and throughout the Burton School District in California’s central valley, according to a SolarCity spokesperson.

These installations, however, stem from an existing partnership with SolarCity. Tesla’s recent activity indicates a far more expansive vision that could involve numerous products.

Will Tesla try to provide energy storage products for the residential, commercial and utility customer? If so, what will that breakdown look like? Or will it back away from homeowners and focus instead on businesses and utilities?

Sam Jaffe, a longtime analyst, formerly of Navigant Research, and now CEO of startup Cyngus Energy Storage, is bullish on the utility market and also sees potential with commercial products. In Jaffe’s view, residential is the question mark.

“There’s more risk than opportunity on the residential side,” Jaffe told Fortune. “It’s not clear if there’s an opportunity at all. So, if that’s the basket in which they’re putting their eggs, there’s a tremendous amount of market risk. In the end, homeowners don’t want to be electric utilities.”

Partners

If Tesla launches—as expected—a utility-scale energy storage product, the company will likely have partners. Who those partners are will give investors an indication of where Tesla is focusing its utility efforts.

It will also demonstrate how well (or not) Tesla has spread out the cost and risk of launching a new product or business unit.

Price

Despite tremendous interest in energy storage, cost has prevented utilities from making large-scale purchases of batteries, Jaffe says.

That’s about to change. The price of high-quality lithium-ion batteries will fall enough by 2017 or 2018 to trigger a buying spree by utilities, Jaffe says. The question is whether Tesla’s large-scale utility product will be cheap enough. Jaffe believes the pricing sweet spot is between $500 and $1,000 per kilowatt-hour for an entire lithium-ion utility-scale energy storage system, including the power electronics, software, and battery management and communications systems.

Pricing on smaller residential systems will need to breach the $1,000 per kWh barrier as well before it will begin to make sense in an unsubsidized market, Jaffe says. “And that’s really hard to do with such small systems because of the higher cost of the inverter and other balance-of-system parts, as well as the fact that there are fewer kilowatt hours to spread that across,” Jaffe says.

Tonight will tell whether Tesla’s plans have spark, or if they’ll need a recharge before taking off.

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
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Tech

Google logo is displayed on a smartphone in front of the EU Flag.
CybersecurityGoogle
EU strikes Google with $1 billion fine in major crackdown on antitrust regulations even as Trump threatens retaliation
By The Associated Press and Sam McNeilJuly 24, 2026
2 hours ago
AI executives demand OpenAI release more details about how the Hugging Face hack happened
AIOpenAI
AI executives demand OpenAI release more details about how the Hugging Face hack happened
By Emily ForliniJuly 24, 2026
2 hours ago
woman yellow shirt standing in front of ring light
SuccessSocial Media
Influencer marketing isn’t an experiment anymore as companies expand their creator advertising budgets
By Tatiana SatauaJuly 24, 2026
2 hours ago
dario
AIEconomics
Anthropic’s head of economics just explained why Anthropic’s CEO was wrong about a white-collar bloodbath
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 24, 2026
3 hours ago
jh
AINvidia
Jensen Huang just used his first ever X post to warn the AI industry not to make the mistake that software narrowly avoided in the 1980s
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 24, 2026
4 hours ago
pjm
EnergyData centers
The AI boom’s hidden electricity bill — and why you’re paying it
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 24, 2026
4 hours ago

Most Popular

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
Big Tech
Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
By Sydney LakeJuly 23, 2026
2 days ago
'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
Economy
'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
By Eleanor PringleJuly 24, 2026
15 hours ago
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
Economy
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 23, 2026
1 day ago
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
Real Estate
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
2 days ago
Spain lifted the World Cup, but the IRS still gets a cut of its $50 million pay day as players, coaches and refs all face complex U.S. “jock taxes”
Personal Finance
Spain lifted the World Cup, but the IRS still gets a cut of its $50 million pay day as players, coaches and refs all face complex U.S. “jock taxes”
By Joshua HongJuly 23, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of July 24, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 24, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 24, 2026
12 hours 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.