USA

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has blamed “lower-than-expected” battery manufacture from Panasonic for disrupting production of Tesla’s Model 3 electric vehicles (EVs).

Musk said in a post on Twitter that Panasonic’s battery cell lines at the ‘Gigafactory 1’ facility in Nevada amounted to about 24GWh per year— lower than the expected 35GWh— and had “been a constraint on Model 3 output since July (2018)”.

Musk added “Tesla won’t spend money on more capacity until existing lines get closer to 35GWh theoretical”.

Draft legislation has been introduced to the US House of Representative that would see energy storage receive the same investment tax credit as solar installations.

The ‘Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act’, introduced by Pennsylvania representative Mike Doyle (pictured), would incentivise both utility-scale energy storage projects and small battery systems for residential use.

The current tax code allows an investment tax credit for energy storage when it is installed in conjunction with a solar energy system; this bill would extend the investment tax credit for energy storage investments in a wider range of applications and provide greater assurance to prospective investors.

A strategy paper from Southern California Gas Company (SCGC) has highlighted the importance of varied methods of energy storage to ensuring the West Coast state meets its “ambitious environmental goals”.

“California already produces more renewable energy than residents and business can use on most days,” meaning that new solutions to energy storage are required to manage fluctuations in supply and demand, the paper said.

But the paper suggests that while batteries will continue to be used to manage short-term demand for energy, they “are not well suited for long-term and seasonal energy storage”.

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) is planning to build “the world’s largest solar-powered battery” to replace a pair of 1970’s-era natural gas power generators in the state.

The 409MW/900MWh Manatee Energy Storage Centre (MESC), which will receive power from FPL’s existing solar power plant in Manatee County, is expected to start operation in late 2021.

FPL is also planning a series of smaller battery installations, solar power plants, and efficiency upgrades to existing combustion turbines across the state, in order to replace 1,638MW of generating capacity.