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Eventually somebody on Wall Street is going to figure out that Tesla’s business is batteries, that Tesla’s batteries are getting good enough to compete with nat

Eventually somebody on Wall Street is going to figure out that Tesla’s business is batteries, that Tesla’s batteries are getting good enough to compete with natural gas peaker plants, and that there is a massive effort underway to convert our electric grid away from burning fossil fuels.

mbgerring 5y ago
I don’t understand why more people aren’t focused on this https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/31/22360839/apple-tesla-megapack-energy-storage-grid-solar-batteries https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/31/22360839/apple-tesla-mega...
jsnell 5y ago
How does that theory explain Tesla having 20x the market cap of Panasonic?
- mbgerring 5y ago
  Is Panasonic building replacements for gas fired power plants?
  - mbgerring 5y ago
    It looks like Panasonic has been planning the deployment of a 10MW energy storage system at its own facility in India since 2016. Nothing I can find says whether they actually built it or not, or what phase the project is in. Tesla is capable of mass-producing 10MW battery packs and shipping them today, with manufacturing in the US, and is winning contracts to deploy them internationally.
jokoon 5y ago
Nothing beats fossil fuels, what are you talking about?
- mbgerring 5y ago
  New solar is cheaper than operating existing coal plants: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/10/23/its-cheaper-to-build-new-solar-than-it-is-to-operate-coal-plants/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/10/23/its-cheaper-to-build-... Battery storage is becoming cost competitive with natural gas peaker plants: https://www.greentechmedia.com/webinars/webinar/will-energy-storage-replace-peaker-plants#gs.6JwDozs https://www.greentechmedia.com/webinars/webinar/will-energy-...
  - jokoon 5y ago
    I'm quite skeptical, not sure those chinese PV panels consider the emissions generated by the mining, shipping and recycling of those panels. "Cheap" or "cost competitive" is irrelevant if you don't consider the carbon cost. It is very difficult to have an accurate carbon accounting, not to mention that fossil fuels will be burned when there's no wind or sun. The best energy/carbon ratio has always been nuclear if you make an accounting on a full year. It's important to define on what field one would compete, because there are no moral incentives to compete on carbon emissions, and monetary cost is decorrelated from the carbon cost. It's easy to shift emissions from one place to another. Anybody can say "green energy is cheaper", and define solar panels as being green while their carbon balance sheet is not so good.

mbgerring 5y ago

I don’t understand why more people aren’t focused on this https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/31/22360839/apple-tesla-megapack-energy-storage-grid-solar-batteries https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/31/22360839/apple-tesla-mega...

jsnell 5y ago

How does that theory explain Tesla having 20x the market cap of Panasonic?

mbgerring 5y ago
Is Panasonic building replacements for gas fired power plants?
- mbgerring 5y ago
  It looks like Panasonic has been planning the deployment of a 10MW energy storage system at its own facility in India since 2016. Nothing I can find says whether they actually built it or not, or what phase the project is in. Tesla is capable of mass-producing 10MW battery packs and shipping them today, with manufacturing in the US, and is winning contracts to deploy them internationally.

jokoon 5y ago

Nothing beats fossil fuels, what are you talking about?

mbgerring 5y ago
New solar is cheaper than operating existing coal plants: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/10/23/its-cheaper-to-build-new-solar-than-it-is-to-operate-coal-plants/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/10/23/its-cheaper-to-build-... Battery storage is becoming cost competitive with natural gas peaker plants: https://www.greentechmedia.com/webinars/webinar/will-energy-storage-replace-peaker-plants#gs.6JwDozs https://www.greentechmedia.com/webinars/webinar/will-energy-...
- jokoon 5y ago
  I'm quite skeptical, not sure those chinese PV panels consider the emissions generated by the mining, shipping and recycling of those panels. "Cheap" or "cost competitive" is irrelevant if you don't consider the carbon cost. It is very difficult to have an accurate carbon accounting, not to mention that fossil fuels will be burned when there's no wind or sun. The best energy/carbon ratio has always been nuclear if you make an accounting on a full year. It's important to define on what field one would compete, because there are no moral incentives to compete on carbon emissions, and monetary cost is decorrelated from the carbon cost. It's easy to shift emissions from one place to another. Anybody can say "green energy is cheaper", and define solar panels as being green while their carbon balance sheet is not so good.