Ryan Stancil,
Editor
April 30, 2021
Elon Musk wants you to let him in your house.
That’s the message he’s been pitching over the past few days with a recent change Tesla made to how it sells its solar panels and energy storage products.
Just a few days ago, he announced that Tesla will now only sell its solar and energy storage products together. From the time Tesla introduced these products to market, they were always sold separately.
The move shows a desire to scale those aspects of Tesla’s business and, beyond that, appeal to utilities in a way that will benefit them as well as Tesla.
To back up the decision, Musk has reasoned that the power grid would need more power lines, power plants, and substations if the U.S. wanted to fully decarbonize. Power distribution in the hands of actual utility customers offers a more efficient, more cost-effective path to reaching that goal.
It’s a new idea that challenges a century-old status quo... one in which the electrical grid we rely on every day is controlled by large organizations mired in bureaucracy and resistant to changing the way they’ve always done things.
This new system of distributed power, called Virtual Power Plants, would force those organizations to either change or get left behind. Elon Musk built much of his infamous personal brand on being a disruptor, and even though he isn’t the first to push this technology, he is among the most prominent.
The fact that he’s not only talking about this but actively pushing it through his company shows that there is a shift coming in the way things are done. If you want to get an idea of just how disruptive this could be, take a look at this image:
Those are the 10 largest companies in the world by revenue. Six of them are energy companies.
It shows just how much money there is in the sector and just how big an impact any kind of potentially disruptive technology could have. That’s trillions in revenue that these Virtual Power Plants could get a piece of.
The story of Elon Musk championing this technology went somewhat under the radar. That’s unusual, given how often many outlets seem to hang on to his every word.
It could be said that it’s just symbolic of the fact that this technology in general hasn’t been getting much attention, despite the implications it carries if it sees widespread adoption.
And it most likely will see widespread adoption.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, renewables in the U.S. electricity generation mix will increase from 21% in 2020 to 42% in 2050. By that same year, the country’s population is projected to grow by about 70 million people.
So the data is there to support the idea that Virtual Power Plants have the foundation they need to grow.
When more people start learning about the benefits of the technology, like that it costs less, can be scaled to demand more quickly, and generally has fewer barriers to entry, this part of the sector is going to take off.
Elon Musk knows that, but Tesla isn’t the only company set to benefit when Virtual Power Plants become more common.
One unknown company is set to do even better, and unlike Tesla, not many people know its name.
The details are in this new report.
You can learn all about it and get in now so that you’ll have already staked your claim when other investors come running.
Keep your eyes open,
Ryan Stancil
Editor, Daily Profit Cycle
Ryan Stancil is an editor and regular contributor to Daily Profit Cycle. He’s been active in the financial publishing industry for more than half a decade, offering insights and commentary on technology and geopolitics to help readers make sense of the constantly changing landscape and how it affects their investments. His readers appreciate his "tell it as it is" writing style, where he always offers a fresh new perspective on what's happening in the market and leaves nothing unsaid.
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