Tesla to build new energy storage super factory in Shanghai
Just after Meyer Musk left on a two-week "tour" of China to promote his new book, his son Elon Musk is about to embark on another trip to China after three years. And before the Tesla CEO arrived, on April 9, China's Shanghai government and Tesla signed a contract for Tesla's first overseas energy storage mega-factory project to be located in Shanghai. In fact, while the outside world is concerned about Tesla's sales ceiling and cost floor, the energy storage business has become its new business. Musk has said, "The future Megapack capacity growth rate will exceed that of cars." It is understood that Tesla currently has only one energy storage super factory located in Lathrop, California, but orders have been scheduled until the fourth quarter of next year, Tesla will be the world's second energy storage super factory in Shanghai, China, can bring more "living water" for Tesla's energy storage business.
Put into operation in the second quarter of next year
It is understood that the Tesla energy storage super factory will plan to produce Tesla super large commercial energy storage battery (Megapack), the initial planning of commercial energy storage battery annual production capacity of 10,000 units, energy storage scale of nearly 40GWh, while the scope of product offerings cover the global market. "The Shanghai factory is Tesla's second global and first overseas energy storage super factory." Tesla related sources told TOPCARS that the new Tesla energy storage super factory project, which is scheduled to start construction in the third quarter of this year, will be put into operation in the second quarter of next year.
Before Musk started his trip to China, Tesla landed its second energy storage super factory in Shanghai, which was considered somewhat abrupt, but in fact there were already clues. Earlier, Tesla, for its part, posted a job vacancy document on Collage for an energy storage engineering project manager, which said, "This is a full-time job in Shanghai, China, and Tesla's energy engineering team is looking for a proactive person to manage the new project for the Megapack program."
In 2021, Tesla is building the Megafactory in Lathrop, California, its first energy storage megafactory in the world. Although Tesla has not directly disclosed the capacity of the plant, last October, Tesla officially showed a video showing that the plant can produce 25 Megapack energy storage batteries a day. In February this year, Tesla showed a new video showing that the plant produces one Megapack energy storage battery every 68 minutes.
For the energy storage project, Tesla demonstrated its lithium battery integrated home energy storage system Powerwall to the public as early as 2015. currently, Tesla mainly has Powerwall, Megapack and other products. Tesla has mentioned in its earnings report that Powerwall and Megapack are lithium-ion battery energy storage products. Among them, Powerwall is to store energy in homes or small commercial facilities, and Megapack is to provide energy storage solutions for commercial, industrial, utility and energy production customers. "The Tesla Megapack battery can support low-cost, high-density utility projects at the gigawatt-hour scale, and flexibility is a key feature of the Megapack battery. At the same time, the Megapack battery can also be updated in real time via OTA to continuously optimize its functionality." Tesla related sources said.
Tesla built another energy storage super factory, which is not unrelated to its future planning. In March this year, Tesla announced the third chapter of the "ambitious plan" at the investor day. The plan mentions that in order to achieve a sustainable energy economy, Tesla targets battery storage of 240 TWH, renewable electricity of 30 TWH, investment of 10 trillion dollars in manufacturing, and 100% sustainable energy by 2050. Tesla said, Tesla energy storage super factory project is one of the links to achieve this goal.
Invisible revenue "tools"
However, in addition to achieving a good vision, the expansion of the energy map can also further enhance Tesla's performance.
Last year, Tesla's revenue exceeded $80 billion, of which the automotive segment contributed 80%, becoming Tesla's most profitable business. But in addition to the car segment, the energy segment has also become a fast-growing business segment of Tesla in the past two years. Financial report shows that last year, Tesla energy segment revenue of $3.909 billion, an increase of up to 40%. Among them, the fourth quarter energy segment revenue of $1.3 billion, an increase of 90%.
It is understood that the current Tesla energy segment is divided into energy storage, photovoltaic and other services. Last year, the growth of Tesla's energy segment performance can not be separated from the improvement of the energy storage business. Financial report shows that last year, Tesla's energy storage business installed capacity of 6.5 gigawatt hours, an increase of 64% year-on-year. Among them, the fourth quarter installed capacity reached 2.5 gigawatt hours, an increase of 152% year-on-year. Musk made a point of mentioning at the earnings meeting, "We've achieved historic growth rates in our energy storage business and are continuing to accelerate."
In fact, market demand for storage systems is climbing after countries set targets for the transition to renewable energy. Data shows that global energy storage battery shipments grew 204.3% year-over-year last year. The U.S. Department of Energy has mentioned that it will expand to slightly more than 30GW by 2025, and the capacity of commercial energy storage is expected to triple. Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, believes that the current battery demand is greater in two directions, one for new energy vehicles, the other is the energy storage business. In order to find more ways out, car companies and battery companies have started to get involved in the energy storage market in recent years.
At present, Tesla Megapack battery is continuing to help the development of new energy for the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries around the world, and gradually become the world's most popular energy storage products, to help countries deal with the shortage of traditional fossil energy problems. For example, in Victoria, Australia, Tesla has built a 350 MW system called Victoria Big Battery, which includes 212 units. This is currently one of the largest renewable energy storage parks in the world and has been providing backup power protection for the Victoria region since its construction.
It is understood that in 2022, many countries around the world actively participate in the energy transition boom, energy storage related development goals, routes have been released, the deployment of energy storage demand is increasingly strong. 2022 pre-table market single project scale record high, large-scale projects to lithium technology route, and the distribution of storage length in 2-4 hours of the project is also gradually increasing. Typical projects include:
(1) United States: the largest independent battery energy storage project on line operation, energy storage scale 350MW/1400MWh, has signed a long-term capacity contract.
(2) Australia: the largest battery energy storage project started construction, with a storage scale of 909MW/1915MWh, providing backup transmission capacity and improving grid stability.
(3) Europe: The largest battery energy storage project is in operation, with a storage scale of 98MW/196MWh, maximizing the efficiency of offshore wind power and reducing abandoned wind hours.
(4) Southeast Asia: the largest battery energy storage project came into operation, with energy storage scale of 200MW/200MWh, mainly providing rotating backup in the first two years, and mainly for frequency service from the third year.
However, in the face of increased market demand, before the landing of the Shanghai energy storage super factory, Tesla has only one energy storage super factory in the United States, also makes its capacity difficult to meet market demand. 2021, Tesla released its second quarter earnings, Musk said: "2022 Megapack have been sold out." At last year's earnings meeting, Musk mentioned again, "Market demand for energy storage products continues to exceed our supply capacity, and Megapack capacity increases are even outpacing Tesla's car capacity increases." There are reports that the order delivery date of Tesla Megapack was updated from the third quarter to the fourth quarter next year.
The market oversupply situation, Tesla energy storage products prices also climb all the way up. On January 26 this year, Tesla's official website data show that a 1.9MW/3.9MWh Megapack energy storage system, including installation excluding taxes sold for $2,627,200, an increase of 1.2% in a month. Previously, Tesla's website showed that the Megapack was priced at $2,596,900.
Achieving 100% sustainable energy by 2050
Not long ago, Tesla officially announced the third chapter of the "secret ambition", Elon Musk unveiled the third chapter of Tesla's "secret ambition", that is, a comprehensive shift to sustainable energy, the goal of achieving 100% sustainable energy by 2050.
The reporter noted that as early as 2006, Tesla announced the first chapter, Tesla has clearly continued to explore the direction of green mobility. In the second chapter, Tesla even condensed the energy integration program to the extreme, clean energy becomes a daily part of people's life and travel. As a constant guide for the first two chapters, the energy mission also runs through the third chapter of Secret Servcorp.
It is reported that the third chapter of Secret Servcorp is divided into five core areas: a complete shift to electric vehicles; the use of heat pumps in the domestic, commercial and industrial sectors; the use of high-temperature energy storage and green hydrogen energy in the industrial sector; the application of sustainable energy in aircraft and ships; and the use of renewable energy to drive the existing power grid.
In manufacturing, Tesla's Shanghai Superfactory has reduced energy consumption and secondary CO2 emissions by 9% in the baking process alone; in vehicle use, Tesla has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 8.4 million tons in 2021 alone by influencing more consumers to choose more energy-efficient electric vehicles.
The Tesla Energy Storage Super Factory project is also one of the key initiatives to achieve Tesla's "full shift to sustainable energy and 100% sustainable energy by 2050". In the energy storage business, Tesla Megapack has been updated to its sixth generation, with a 60% year-over-year increase in 2022. From 2012 to 2021, Tesla's energy products have generated more electricity than all Tesla vehicles and factories combined.
As we all know, the future of renewable energy relies on large-scale energy storage. The Tesla Megapack battery can support low-cost, high-density utility projects on a gigawatt-hour scale, and flexibility is a key feature of the Megapack battery. It is reported that it can be readily installed with battery modules, inverters and temperature systems integrated to help make the grid more stable and sustainable.
The reporter noted that at the design level, Tesla matched each battery module with an exclusive inverter, and each unit has also been extensively fire tested, containing an integrated safety system, professional monitoring software, etc. Energy efficiency and safety have been significantly improved. In addition, the Megapack battery can also be updated in real time through OTA to continuously optimize the function.
According to Tesla, "The continuous enrichment of energy integration solutions and global layout is Tesla's adherence to its energy mission and its commitment to a greener lifestyle for more people. Tesla will also invest more efforts in China to attract more partners to 'accelerate the world's transformation to sustainable energy' together through more diversified products and services."
