In its Q3 of 2017 earnings report, Tesla Inc. gave an update on their ‘Tesla Energy’ arm. In Q3, Tesla deployed 110 MWh of energy storage systems, growing 12% from the prior quarter and increasing 138% year-over-year, driven mainly by increased Powerwall deliveries.
Tesla also deployed 109 MW of energy generation systems in Q3. The lower deployments are in large part a result of deliberately deemphasizing commercial and industrial solar energy projects with low profit and limited cash generation.
Approximately 46% of the residential solar energy systems deployed in Q3 were sold, rather than leased, up from 13% in Q3 2016, a continuing trend that drives revenue growth and improves cash generation. Tesla is expecting cash sales to surpass 50% of residential solar revenue in Q4. Solar Roof installations will initially ramp slowly in Q4 as the Palo Alto-based company move the production process from Fremont to Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo. Tesla expect to ramp Solar Roof production considerably in 2018, as they fine tune and standardize the production and installation process.
Deployment of the 100 MW / 129 MWh energy storage project for South Australia is underway, and Tesla said it’s on track to meet the 100- day deadline. To date, Tesla has installed more than 80% of the Powerpacks for the South Australia project; however, revenue will not be recognized until full deployment of the project. Energy storage enables a more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable way to build and manage utility grid scale applications, and Tesla expect this project to lay the groundwork for many similar projects, but at an even larger scale, in the years ahead.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the island of Puerto Rico was left largely without electricity. In response, Tesla have sent solar panels, Powerpacks and hundreds of Powerwall energy storage systems to Puerto Rico. The company is also actively working with various organizations to offer Tesla’s energy generation and storage solutions that are cost effective and can provide long-term distributed energy to the island.
In a related news, in its report, Tesla also said that they opened 126 new Supercharger stations in Q3, for a total of more than 1,000 stations and over 7,000 Supercharging connectors worldwide. Tesla’s network of destination chargers is even larger. At the end of the quarter, there were 7,200 destination charger locations worldwide, which increased the availability of destination charging for their customers by nearly 18% in one quarter.
Tesla recently opened a Supercharger station with 50 connectors in Shanghai, China. Such high-density stations will become more common in other high traffic areas in the future. Tesla also introduced new Superchargers for parking garages and city centers. Superchargers in city centers are more compact, easier to install, and have a high charging rate of 72 kW.
“This is helping us to accelerate and scale Supercharging availability for our customers, in line with the expected growth of our fleet,” Tesla said in a Q3 earnings report.
