Tesla reaches an important milestone with its solar business despite supply challenges. In the more recent data, there is substantial growth in the sector. Tesla announced that it completed 500,000 solar installations.
The number of installations implies that it is equal to around 4 GW of clean energy. The news emphasizes Tesla’s continued growth into the solar power and energy storage markets, a key side business to its clean energy vehicles.
We’ve completed 500k+ Solar Panel and Solar Roof installations—that’s equal to ~4 GW of clean energy ☀️ pic.twitter.com/Tjz6PzYuah
— Tesla (@Tesla) December 19, 2022
Furthermore, major supply chain barriers have plagued Tesla’s solar business throughout 2022, though it has still managed a few record-breaking quarters for solar installations. Most of its solar installations are performed by third parties, letting the company focus on manufacturing and deployment of its solar hardware. Tesla offers a range of clean energy products, with solar panels, solar roofs, solar inverters, and Powerwalls being its most common residential products. For larger energy storage projects, Tesla also offers its 3 MWh Megapack systems, which the company says is enough energy to power roughly 3,600 homes for an hour.
Recently, Tesla also launched Tesla Electric to officially become an electricity retailer in Texas. The project has taken years of work to complete, and it’s the latest in the company’s journey to create huge distributed batteries generated by clean electricity.
Solar roof production
Tesla wrote on its website, “With Tesla Electric, your Powerwall automatically decides when to charge and when to sell electricity to the grid. Together with other Tesla Electric members, you can maximize the value of your solar energy while using your Powerwall storage to add more renewable electricity to the grid.” Tesla added, “You can also achieve your own sustainability goals when importing electricity from the grid, as Tesla Electric offsets your usage with energy from 100 percent renewable sources.”
Earlier this year, CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla was aiming to produce 1,000 solar roofs per week, though it has only reached a max output of around 23 solar roofs per week. Still, he also referenced supply chain problems, saying that supply for its solar products was low to let customers purchase a Powerwall without ordering solar. Instead, Musk added that users should be able to order a Powerwall by itself by the end of the year. In any case, Tesla’s clean energy storage and generation business is rapidly growing with programs like its Virtual Power Plant pilot and huge Megapack storage sites being deployed worldwide. As these products are deployed at-large, the world should continue to grow less reliant on traditional fuels and coal for a cleaner overall atmosphere.
