Tesla’s Solar Installations Continue to Drop

• Tesla's Q2/2023 solar deployments were at the same level as last quarter
• On annual basis, it registered a decline of 38% with 66 MW new PV installations
• It blamed high interest rate environment as the major reason for customers postponing solar purchasing

Elon Musk headed Tesla has reported 4^th consecutive quarter of decline in its solar installations since Q2/2022, including around 38% annual drop in deployments to a total of 66 MW in Q2/2023, almost at the same level as last quarter when it reported 67 MW.

Last quarter, Tesla blamed volatile weather and supply chain challenges for quarterly drop in PV deployments (see 33% Drop In Tesla's Q1/2023 Solar Installations).

The automotive and clean energy giant cited high interest rate environment as the predominant reason for flat deployment sequentially. Management said this is causing postponement of solar purchasing industry-wide.

On the other hand, its energy storage deployment increased by 222% annually to 3.7 GWh in the reporting quarter. It listed ongoing ramp of the company's 1^st dedicated factory in Lathrop, California and production rate improvement as the reasons for the growth.

Of the $20.4 billion group revenues during Q2/2023, energy generation and storage accounted for 1.51 billion for Tesla.

The company that wants end users to eventually get the whole Tesla ecosystem with solar panels, energy storage to power homes and electric vehicles from the company, has come out with a new offering. With Charge on Solar, Tesla wants its Powerwall and vehicle customers to charge their vehicles with excess solar power generated by their rooftop PV systems.

On the call with analysts, management also said it has started paying Texas customers for participating in the company's virtual power plant to provide grid support to ERCOT. This, it hopes, will bring down the average electricity bills of its customers by 1/3^rd and as ERCOT expands market access, the credits will go up too.