Tesla could be better known as a bomb company (with a few exceptions) electric vehicles, but it looks like it could be selling electricity directly to people very soon.
This is according to one new report in Texas Monthly detailing Elon Musk’s new subsidiary created —Tesla Energy Ventures— that has just been presented with the Texas Public Utility Commission to sell electricity directly to residents of the state. Details about the project, that was formally registered on August 17, they are quite thin right now; but we know it will be led by Tesla’s director of trade credit regulators, Ana Stewart, and flanked by its current leader in power and charging products, Rohan Ma.
According to the PUC presenting, Tesla’s plan for the new company is to address its own current customers throughout the state. And there will certainly be some Tesla problems in Texas looking for an alternative in a state where most of the electricity grid runs on fossil fuels. Remember that grid failed catastrophically during a February cold, leaving millions of people powerless i hundreds of dead. Subsequent peer-reviewed research has led to the challenge exact causes of failure, and much of the blame lies at the foot of a fossil fuel infrastructure that was not prepared for the weather, which led to widespread energy losses as people increased the heat. (Some jeans even addressed to using electric vehicles which had been fully charged before the storm to stay warm.)
The consequences have been very heavy since then. Energy suppliers across the state have been on fire lawsuits for price stripping, regulators have been fired he resigned with the abandonment and numerous utilities have filed for bankruptcy or sued the state energy network regulator, ERCOT. But lawmakers do basically done nothing to help the situation, thanks to the consolidated interests of fossil fuels, and the network again he staggered this summer.
In other words, there is a pretty big gap in the Texas energy market right now that Tesla could fill. The state does have health the renewable energy industry, especially with regard to wind energy. Jeans they also have installed 1 gigawatt small scale solar capacity, but maximizing existing panels and further strengthening storage and capacity is essential to addressing the climate crisis. It could also improve access to electricity and unions have disappeared all in in a fully electric future for Texas. (That could also, of course, be a way to make money at Tesla.)
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JoIn March, another Tesla subsidiary called Gambit Energy Storage he started working in a new energy storage facility based in the suburban city of Angleton, Texas. The installation, when finished, is essentially a massive battery that could be connected directly to the mains and powered in Texas 16,400 households in the state.
MThe usk company has also expanded its energy storage systems in Australia too. Tesla built a utility-scale battery storage facility and created a “virtual exchange ” which allows customers with rooftop solar installations and electrical walls in their home to act as a grid to move and store electricity. The company in Texas could reflect these efforts, with Texas Monthly, which points to PUC’s presentation, shows that Tesla will approach existing customers.
Last year, Musk they told investors he thought Tesla’s energy business rivals the company ambitions of electric cars. “I think in the long run Tesla Energy will be about the same size as Tesla Automotive,” he said. “The energy business is collectively bigger than the automobile business.”
Musk not only has a professional relationship with the state, but also a personal one, considering how he made a great spectacle of his movement down there to at the end of last year (until the disgust of some Austin residents). JoIf Tesla emerges as a power player in the state’s difficult energy market, jeans will be more willing to warm up with the man. But if your power grid ambitions are similar your robot glides, could be put face to face a Texas-sized disaster.
As usual, Tesla can’t comment because yes close his public relations department last year.