The data from Tesla 1st quarter earnings report in Q12023 show the speed of grid batteries rapid increase is accelerating. For a fuller understanding of grid batteries check out this Tesla specific post or a more general post about grid and community batteries. Note that the total quantity deployed in Q12023 was larger than for the previous six months (Tesla Q12023 earnings report).
Lag Time for Grid Batteries Rapid Increase
The time for projects is between 3 – 9 months from production to installation. The USA is currently suffering from long delays for grid-tied. Payments may take require signoff by the energy company or regulator.
Tesla’s “deployed” numbers in their Quarterly Reports Megapack(s) are those that have been connected to the grid.
Tesla Production Capacity is Exponential
The increase in production in 2023 from the 40GWh capacity from Lathrop and the potential production from Giga Nevada which was ~4.3GW in 2022. Will that rise to 10GW in 2023?
What Is the Potential
Lathrop production targets are 40GW of batteries per year or 10,000 unit. The estimate of current production is 12 Megapacks per day, or about 1/3rd capacity.
The Nevada Gigafactory is increasing production. In 2022 90% plus of the 6,54GWh deployed came from Nevada! The expected increase will be to double.
Nevada may ramp to 10GWh in 2023
5 Year No Degradation
CATL has announced a 6.25MWh grid storage battery, which showed no degradation over 5 years and is good for 15,000 cycles. TENER (or Tianheng) (or is a bit like Tesla’s Megapack of 3.9MWh. Tener comprises L-series long-life Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries within a 20-ft-equivalent container, for an energy density of 430 Wh/L . It is 30% energy denser per unit compared to previous iterations.
CATL has a major share in Australia’s pipeline of big battery projects, including contracts worth more than $1 billion with Western Australia government-owned utility Synergy to supply batteries for the 200MW/800MWh second stage of the Kwinana big battery and the 500MW/2000MWh Collie big battery. It is also supplying the hardware for the biggest battery project in South Australia the 238.5 MW / 477 MWh Blythe Battery that will help supply “baseload renewables” to BHP’s giant Olympic Dam mine.
