The Elon Musk business that could overshadow Tesla EVs, X or even space travel
RENEWABLES RICH LIST | He's rarely out of the headlines, but storage technology that's crucial to the energy transition is an often overlooked part of the Musk business empire
With businesses as varied and influential as Tesla, SpaceX, and X the former Twitter, Elon Musk never seems far from the headlines or global conversation, or indeed controversy.
The Renewables Rich List
Recharge turns the spotlight on some of the world’s wealthiest people who are using at least part of their stupendous riches to underpin the energy transition.
While its storage business is currently much smaller than its auto side, Tesla’s EV market growth slowed last year with revenues up 15% while storage rocketed 54% in annual comparisons.
Battery deployment surged 125% to 14.7GWh in 2023, while storage and generation business profits “nearly quadrupled” Tesla noted in its fourth quarter earnings statement released in January.
The US alone expanded battery storage by almost 8GW in 2023, raising cumulative capacity by 85% in a single year to reach 17GW/45,588MWh, according to renewables advocate American Clean Power Association.
Musk has long forecast steep growth for storage, fuelled by the need to integrate variable renewable energy sources into the grid, and to help balance supply and demand created by electrification – and not least by Tesla’s own EVs.
He has referred to lithium – the critical element in lithium-ion batteries – as the “new oil” and has established multiple production centres for the battery supply chain.
Megapacks are currently manufactured at the Lathrop, California Megafactory east of San Francisco. The plant is capable of producing 10,000 units for some 40GWh of capacity but will soon be augmented by a similar facility in Shanghai, China expected to come online by the end of this year.
India has also been floated for battery manufacturing for electric vehicles and storage.
“In 2024, the growth rate of deployments and revenue in our Energy Storage business should outpace the Automotive business,” Musk said.
In-line with Musk’s tendency to vertically integrate his businesses, Tesla's US operations are moving even farther upstream into lithium refining.
In May the company broke ground on a lithium refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, some 217-miles from its Austin headquarters, where it will produce battery-grade lithium to avoid the most “fundamental choke point” for the advancement of electric vehicles, as described by Musk.
Details on the new plant remain scarce but construction is well underway in East Texas with operations expected as soon as this year.
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