Tesla Motors is planning to make significant investments in the charging infrastructure in Japan, CEO Elon Musk told Nikkei in an interview. Musk said that all the charging stations will be either directly or indirectly solar powered.
Charging stations similar to those in California
Tesla will be developing charging stations similar to those constructed in California. “We’ll buy utility power that’s coming from solar panels, or we’ll have solar panels on the charge station itself. There will be no impact to the electrical grid in Japan,” Musk said in the interview.
Tesla is said to be planning to unveil battery solution to power homes and save consumers money on their electric bills. The product includes automatic charging capabilities designed for energy saving. “It’s quite a profound thing,” Musk told CNN Money, adding that users will pay one-quarter of the price of electricity. Also a new battery will help bring down electric bills by around 25%.
Tesla home battery solution has huge potential
The EV manufacturer is stepping into the energy storage market, in which policies and incentives are adding to the feasibility of selling battery systems to businesses and utilities. Tesla selected California as the first state in the country where utilities will buy energy storage services, including storing solar electricity and discharging electricity from the grid to regulate its frequency or maintain a balance of supply and demand.
The Palo Alto-based company started to sell batteries for homes in 2013 and included business and utility customers in 2014. There is no report about sales figures, but they are apparently not strong enough to effect the company’s finances. Also these batteries are relatively new, and therefore, nothing concrete can be said about their performance.
Tesla has a lot of potential for improvement and is releasing new designs during a media event. Musk talked about designing a “cool” battery pack for homes during an earnings call in May last year.
The company’s battery technology has software for monitoring its health and to charge and discharge energy to run a car. Batteries will be integrated with the multiple software designed for different purposes depending on the expectations of customers. Various energy storage developers such as SunPower and Stem are investing big bucks into software development.
