Tesla claims its new solar inverter is much cheaper than the competition

Published

2 years ago

January 12, 2023

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Tesla released a white paper on its new string solar inverter and claims that it is much cheaper than competing inverter solutions from Enphase and SolarEdge.

In 2021, Tesla launched its own solar inverter for the first time.

Over the last few years, the company has started to integrate it increasingly into its own solar installations, and it also supplies it to other solar installers through its certified installer program.

Electrek has now obtained a white paper about its solar inverter that Tesla has been sharing around.

Tesla explained in the white paper’s summary:

Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. To speed up the adoption of solar and storage in the residential energy sector, we’ve focused on providing products specifically designed for both the system owner and the installer. To develop the Tesla Solar Inverter, we leveraged our deep industry experience to design an inverter that offered the best value for system owners, while being easy to install, maintain, and service.

Tesla’s main claim in the paper is that its string inverter solution is cheaper at the purchase and through the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE).

In the paper, Tesla admits that its solution results in a lower production by about 1 or 2%:

We then assessed the real-world performance data of these sites to characterize the effects of inverter type on the system’s output. We compared actual system performance data of sites with different inverter types but similar SES, ensuring only similar roofs were compared. For the homes that are good for solar (SES 6-10), sites that used optimizers saw energy production gains of 1-2% compared to homes that used Tesla Solar Inverters. When comparing the cost of Tesla Solar Inverter with MLPEs, it begged the question whether the production gains were worth the increased cost of the MLPEs.

The leading solar inverter company using optimizers is SolarEdge, which Tesla mentions in the white paper and appears to compare its solution to in this case.

Electrek contacted SolarEdge for a comment on the comparison, and we will update if we get an answer.

In the paper, Tesla claims that the trade-off for the lower output was worth it since its analysis resulted in a 6% lower Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE):

To answer this question, an LCOE analysis was performed to compare two 8 kW solar systems4. In the base-case scenario, our analysis found that the Tesla system had a 6% lower LCOE for the most common SES5. We also found that, for 93% of sites in the sample, Tesla had a lower LCOE. The difference in LCOE is driven entirely by higher inverter equipment costs. Further, the gap between LCOEs for SES 8 roofs expands to approximately 15% after factoring in the potential failures of optimizers during the service life6. These findings prove that over the system’s lifetime, the Tesla Solar Inverter will provide energy at a better value for most customers.

Tesla also claims that its string solar inverter results in benefits for installers in terms of ease of installation and site design process.

Here’s the full white paper:

Electrek’s Take

The white paper reads more like a sale brochure than a scientific paper, but it doesn’t mean that the data is inaccurate.

I also found it interesting that the white paper also focused on the “Tesla ecosystem”:

For the customer, Tesla Solar Inverter completes their Tesla ecosystem. System owners use a single app to monitor and manage their entire home energy system. Instead of sorting through multiple apps to make sure all devices are working properly, the Tesla app displays all Tesla products, including solar, Tesla vehicles, and charging. The intuitive app experience allows the customer to view and manage home energy usage across these devices, with the system optimizing for savings and efficiency. As new features are developed, they are automatically made available in the Tesla app, ensuring customers can unlock the full potential of their home energy system.

We have been seeing a shift in Tesla’s solar business lately where the company appears to be focusing more on providing its ecosystem supported mainly by the Powerwall, and now, the solar inverter.

I think eventually that might be Tesla’s primary approach to achieving scale with its new Tesla Electric business.

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

Published

3 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!

Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.

Source Links

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonusLucid proves than an EV company can keep its promises while Xiaomi teams up with Chevrolet and Honda to prove – at least conceptually – that records are made to be broken. audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news!

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!

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This ‘supercharger on wheels’ brings fast charging to you [update]

Published

5 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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This 'supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you [update]

Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”

November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).

It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.

Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”

May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.

“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.

The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)

Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)

Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.

The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.

To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.

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Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Published

5 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Marqeta celebrates its initial public offering at the Nasdaq on June 9, 2021.

Source: The Nasdaq

Marqeta shares tumbled more than 30% in extended trading on Monday after the company issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter.

Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Loss per share: 6 cents adjusted vs. a loss of 5 cents expected
Revenue: $128 million vs. $128.1 million expected

While third-quarter results showed a slight disappointment on the top and bottom lines, Marqeta’s forecast for the current period was more concerning.

The payment processing firm said revenue in the fourth quarter will increase 10% to 12% from a year earlier. Analysts were looking for growth of more than 17%, according to LSEG.

Marqeta, which primarily functions as a card-issuing platform, attributed the guidance miss to “heightened scrutiny of the banking environment and specific customer program changes.” The company has been struggling for a while, and its stock is now down more than 80% from its peak in 2021, the year it went public. The stock was down 15% for the year prior to the report.

Total processing volume of $74 billion was up more than 30% from a year earlier. Net revenue and gross profit were up 18% and 24%, respectively.

Marqeta’s digital commerce business sells payment technology designed to detect potential fraud and ensure that money is properly routed. It also issues customized physical cards that look like a credit or debit card that can be used for point-of-sale purchases.

The company has been trying to break into the buy now, pay later business with a recently launched product called Marqeta Flex. The service brings BNPL from lenders such as Affirm or Klarna to any credit card wherever Mastercard and Visa are accepted.

“It’s an orchestration layer, but it’s tied to issuing and processing and disputes and chargebacks,” CEO Simon Khalaf told CNBC at Money2020 in Las Vegas last week. “So it is not actually a Wild West in BNPL. It is actually very well established. And there is a reason why a lot of people are jumping to it.”