This article discusses a recent application made by Tesla Energy Ventures, a subsidiary of Tesla, to sell electricity directly into the Texas electric utility market from its new battery storage facility in Angleton, Texas. In recent years, Tesla has constructed numerous utility-scale battery storage systems around the US. However, these systems have not sold electricity to customers through retail electricity markets. Instead, they have largely been used to help large energy consumers to generate and store their own energy for their own consumption. Thus, this application marks Tesla's first move towards becoming a retail energy provider.
The article notes that the use of Tesla solar-pllus-storage systems to sell "green credits" to companies that need them has been a large contributor to Tesla's profits. However, they largely frame the decision to enter the marked as a response to the Texas Grid Failure in February 2021, which Musk had expressed disapproval of through his twitter account. Framing the disruptive company's decision to apply for storage in the wake of the the grid failure and the regulatory failures of the Texas Public Utility Commission (which oversees the electric utility industry and market) and the Texas Railroad Commission (which oversees the state's oil and gas industry) reinforces neoliberal ideas, such as the idea that Elon Musk-style, eco-modernist capitalism can resolve energy security problems through market logics.
Lora Kolodny, "Tesla files to become an electricity provider in Texas", contributed by James Adams, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 6 July 2022, accessed 26 December 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/tesla-files-become-electricity-provider-texas
Critical Commentary
This article discusses a recent application made by Tesla Energy Ventures, a subsidiary of Tesla, to sell electricity directly into the Texas electric utility market from its new battery storage facility in Angleton, Texas. In recent years, Tesla has constructed numerous utility-scale battery storage systems around the US. However, these systems have not sold electricity to customers through retail electricity markets. Instead, they have largely been used to help large energy consumers to generate and store their own energy for their own consumption. Thus, this application marks Tesla's first move towards becoming a retail energy provider.
The article notes that the use of Tesla solar-pllus-storage systems to sell "green credits" to companies that need them has been a large contributor to Tesla's profits. However, they largely frame the decision to enter the marked as a response to the Texas Grid Failure in February 2021, which Musk had expressed disapproval of through his twitter account. Framing the disruptive company's decision to apply for storage in the wake of the the grid failure and the regulatory failures of the Texas Public Utility Commission (which oversees the electric utility industry and market) and the Texas Railroad Commission (which oversees the state's oil and gas industry) reinforces neoliberal ideas, such as the idea that Elon Musk-style, eco-modernist capitalism can resolve energy security problems through market logics.