Tesla’s once-flagship solar business is in decline, according to the latest figures from its fourth-quarter 2023 earnings report.
The automaker revealed Wednesday that solar installations fell 36 percent to a total of 223 megawatts (MW) last year, from 348 MW in 2022. Although high interest rates have slowed solar growth in some markets, Tesla’s shrinking came as the U.S. States set a record year overall; the US added 33 gigawatts of solar capacity in 2023, per estimates from BEAa solar industry group.
It’s been a bad year for Tesla solar — the worst since 2020. Zooming in, the last quarter of 2023 looks even worse.
In Q4 2023, Tesla’s solar installations fell 59% year-over-year to 41 MW — from 100 MW in Q4 2022. Other than blaming interest rates, the company offered no other explanation for the decline. power reduction. At least some of the blame can fall on Tesla’s shift in strategy from installer to supplier. The automotive industry dismissed some of its own solar installers last year and canceled numerous planned “solar roof” installations., per Electrek. Tesla bought SolarCity a little more than seven years ago for $2.6 billion.
Next to solar, Tesla’s energy generation and storage business is booming (surprise, surprise). The company said its energy storage deployments — which include Powerwall home batteries and utility-scale Megapacks — topped 14,724 megawatt-hours (MWh) in 2023, up 125% from the previous year.
Despite the overall boom, Tesla commented that it expects some volatility in power growth each quarter, and the company’s fourth-quarter results show the same. The automotive industry deployed 3,202 MWh in Q4 2023. lower than the three previous quartersbut they are rising if you compare this rate to the same quarter last year (Q4 2022).
The scale of Tesla’s residential solar business isn’t what it once was. However, commercial and home batteries still play a key role in the transition to renewable energy by storing intermittently available clean energy for later use. Such batteries can also help communities and even entire islands and states, prepare for extreme weather events by reducing peak demand on the grid and providing backup power during outages.
