The business case for Tesla is hughe. Refurbished batteries for use in cars or other applications (home solar etc.) will become a big and profitable market. Of course Tesla should take ownership early.
With batteries in the super charger stations, Tesla will create havoc in the utility industry. They will accomplish
- demand leveling & avoid peak charges
- buy vast amounts of renewable energy at the time there is surplus generation
- sell ancillary services like reserve gereration capacity, black start, frequency regulation
A peek in the future
- Tesla approaches full coverage of North America in 2015 with approx. 200 stations
- pace of new stations slows down, existing stations get extended like in Gilroy
- local battery storage deployed to all stations with 500kWh and 1MW initially
- 20m Tesla EVs on the road doing 300b miles annually, consuming 300b*300Wh=90TWh of electricity
- Tesla becomes the largest purchaser for energy in the country
- Tesla offers special home charging tariffs. Charging is managed remotely to balance grid requirements.
Ups, way OT here. where to turn?
Edit: continuing
over there...