A mall in South Carolina is managing its energy consumption using batteries from Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).
The Brea Mall located in Southern California has joined the league of data centers, utilities and organizations that use batteries from Tesla for their energy storage needs. The mall has reportedly set up two large battery systems that will act as energy storage centers for the mall.
Simon Property, a commercial real estate developer recently revealed that the Brea Mall which is located 30 miles Southeast of Los Angeles will use the batteries to power up the building during specific times of the day. This means that the batteries will not power up the mall throughout. The move is expected to bring down the mall’s electricity costs by switching from grid power to battery power during the times of the day where consumption is more expensive.
The Tesla batteries used by the mall are known as “powerpacks” and they will be charged from the grid when the electricity rates are low. The power from the batteries will be used to run the operations of the mall when rates are high. The batteries are mostly expected to power the air conditioning and lighting systems.
The batteries used by the mall are similar to the batteries used in Tesla’s electric vehicles. They are lithium-ion batteries that are manufactured by Panasonic but packaged by Tesla. The electric vehicle manufacturer went the extra mile with the batteries as they include smart software to operate the battery packs.
In 2015, Tesla announced plans to sell the battery packs for utility purposes. The company stated that the batteries would be sold to building owners, utility firms, and homeowners. The battery pack for homes and small businesses are known as powerwalls. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk is pushing for more battery production and he expects the battery sales to soon surpass those of the electric vehicles which is the company’s core business.
Tesla stock closed the recent trading session at $196.41 per share, with a $0.36 rise equivalent to a 0.08% improvement and an average volume of 3.16 million shares.
