New Tesla battery will be paired with rooftop solar panels

By Kyle Roerink

Published Wednesday, April 22, 2015 | 12:20 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, April 22, 2015 | 1:02 p.m.

Tesla Motors says it is ready to unveil plans for two new battery products, including one that will be paired with residential rooftop solar panels to provide sun energy at night.

In a memo to investors and market analysts, first detailed by Buzzfeed news, the company said it would announce plans for a “home battery” and a “very large scale utility battery" design at a product launch next week.

Jeff Evanson, the company’s vice president of investor relations, penned the memo and said the company will explain at the conference “the advantages of our solutions and why past battery options were not compelling.”

During a conference call in February, Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and founder, said designs were complete and production would be ready in “six months.” The batteries are a way to store renewable energy.

The home battery is considered a way to advance the residential rooftop solar industry. The idea is that consumers can install solar panels on their roofs and store energy during the day for use at night.

Tesla’s home battery product will be paired with rooftop installations from Solar City, a rooftop solar company with more than 1,000 employees in Nevada and operated by Musk’s cousins. SolarCity expects to deliver a battery with every solar installation by 2020, Ryan Hanley, senior director of grid engineering solutions, told reporters from Utility Dive.

The news about a home battery comes as controversy continues between NV Energy and Nevada’s rooftop solar industry.

Solar advocates and companies like SolarCity are looking to expand a cap on a policy that limits how many customers can receive a credit for installing solar panels that provide energy to their homes and the grid.

The battle highlights a growing push for companies to take on the existing model for power generation in the U.S., which is dominated by big utilities like NV Energy.

NV Energy does not want to expand the cap, calling the rooftop solar credit a subsidy that threatens future prices for other ratepayers.

The solar industry says not increasing the cap will jeopardize a growing industry. It also contends that the industry poses a threat to the fiscal model utilities have long used to profit.

Tesla’s proposed utility battery, however, could provide a benefit in the long run for ratepayers. The batteries could capture and store electricity generated by large-scale, utility-owned wind and solar facilities.

Jonathan Weisgall, a vice president at Berkshire Hathaway Energy, NV Energy’s parent company, told Utility Drive that industrial-sized storage batteries are not a threat.

“It is not taking away revenue or electrons,” he said. “It is enhancing what utilities are doing to deal with renewables.”