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How much profit do those projects bring?

threeseed 8y ago
Hard to tell at this point. At least in South Australia I think he pretty much built it at cost just to have a reference site to help persuade other governments. That said you would think these projects would be profitable since they are billion dollars purchases made by governments.
- annerajb 8y ago
  That was bidded by private companies and financed by private consortium. My understanding is that ongoing revenue will break it even. Initial install was near zero margin.
gizmo 8y ago
Tesla lost money on the Australia project. They bought the battery cells from Samsung and put them in a Tesla branded unit. Samsung also could have installed the battery themselves (always cheaper to cut out a middle man), but Tesla was willing to buy their cells and then sell them at a loss to Australia. Tesla got a ton of publicity out of it, though, so it was probably a win for all parties involved.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  Apparently they made the life of people in the region (administration, utility and consumers) a lot better with their system. I'm not very knowledgeable on this topic but it seems that it was a superb demo for Tesla.
- kjksf 8y ago
  And your source for that information? (other than using Samsung cells). I'm really curious because claiming they lost money on that project is rather specific. Also, claiming that Samsung could have done that is specific. Was Samsung one of the 90 bidder on that project? Did Samsung do any utility-scale storage installation. Does Samsung even have a competing product? Contrary to what you seem to assume, Powerpacks involve a bit more than putting li-ion cells in a box.
  - gizmo 8y ago
    Samsung bid, Tesla underbid them, and yes Samsung has utility level energy storage solutions: http://www.samsungsdi.com/ess/energy-storage-system-application.html http://www.samsungsdi.com/ess/energy-storage-system-applicat...
- Latteland 8y ago
  I don't know you how you know they lost money, but I guess it's not surprising that the first implementation in Oz lost money. My company sells database software. We sell our stuff at a significant discount to the first entrant in a new market area, so we can get some traction, and use their name to help as a listed company. This is completely standard. It seems like you are suggesting this was some underhanded behavior.

Hard to tell at this point. At least in South Australia I think he pretty much built it at cost just to have a reference site to help persuade other governments. That said you would think these projects would be profitable since they are billion dollars purchases made by governments.

annerajb 8y ago
That was bidded by private companies and financed by private consortium. My understanding is that ongoing revenue will break it even. Initial install was near zero margin.

gizmo 8y ago

Tesla lost money on the Australia project. They bought the battery cells from Samsung and put them in a Tesla branded unit. Samsung also could have installed the battery themselves (always cheaper to cut out a middle man), but Tesla was willing to buy their cells and then sell them at a loss to Australia. Tesla got a ton of publicity out of it, though, so it was probably a win for all parties involved.

agumonkey 8y ago
Apparently they made the life of people in the region (administration, utility and consumers) a lot better with their system. I'm not very knowledgeable on this topic but it seems that it was a superb demo for Tesla.
kjksf 8y ago
And your source for that information? (other than using Samsung cells). I'm really curious because claiming they lost money on that project is rather specific. Also, claiming that Samsung could have done that is specific. Was Samsung one of the 90 bidder on that project? Did Samsung do any utility-scale storage installation. Does Samsung even have a competing product? Contrary to what you seem to assume, Powerpacks involve a bit more than putting li-ion cells in a box.
- gizmo 8y ago
  Samsung bid, Tesla underbid them, and yes Samsung has utility level energy storage solutions: http://www.samsungsdi.com/ess/energy-storage-system-application.html http://www.samsungsdi.com/ess/energy-storage-system-applicat...
Latteland 8y ago
I don't know you how you know they lost money, but I guess it's not surprising that the first implementation in Oz lost money. My company sells database software. We sell our stuff at a significant discount to the first entrant in a new market area, so we can get some traction, and use their name to help as a listed company. This is completely standard. It seems like you are suggesting this was some underhanded behavior.