Las Megas | Tesla Megablock Event
Hello, hello, hello everyone. Thank you all for being here. It’s great to see a lot of familiar faces out there. Um, for those joining us online, we’re here in the Boring Company tunnel for our latest product unveil. And right on brand, this this event is powered by Mega Packs and Cybertruck. All right, let’s get started. At Tesla, we are building a world filled with sustainable abundance, powered by sustainable energy. And tonight we are launching the next chapter in that vision. We are an engineering centric and engineering led company and we believe that electric vehicles charging storage and solar and autonomy they are not separate tools but but they are one of they are part of one seamless solution set. We are leveraging our manufacturing expertise. We are leveraging our manufacturing expertise to produce products affordably and at scale. Increasing the reliability increasing the reliability of clean energy and transportation in our communities. Tesla offers hardware, software, controls, and service all under one roof. We have engineers across the full spectrum of product development, energy projects, and manufacturing. It’s really what allows us to innovate and iterate quickly to produce the best products in the world. Now in 2023, we introduced master plan part three and we outlined how the entire earth could be run off sustainable energies using technologies we have today. In order to eliminate fuels, we need eliminate fossil fuels, we need to power the grid with renewable renewables. But to do that, that requires massive batteries. In order to achieve a fully sustainable economy, we calculated that the world needed 46 terowatt hours or 46,000 gawatt hours of storage. Now, we know we know not all of that is going to be mega pack, but we are excited to continue being a leader in the space and transforming the grid to a sustainable future. But this transformation is not just about renewables. Global electricity demand is projected to increase by 3% annually, driven by electrification, manufacturing, and data centers. AI data centers alone is projected to make up to 10% of the US energy demand by 2030. This rate of load growth hasn’t been seen in the US since the early 2000s. Load is rapidly growing and to be honest, the grid is not growing fast enough to keep up. What’s interesting to note is that the grid is traditionally built to handle the highest demand moments. But for most of the day or even most of the year, it is far below capacity. It operates far below capacity. Some estimates state that the grid is about 50% utilized here in the US. And set another way, 50% of the grid infrastructure sits idle and unused most of the year. Batteries are are an ideal solution to help the grid utilize more of its own supply. Let’s just look at this example. So this is an example load over the course of seven days and you can see the grid capacity in the dash red line and obviously it is greater than the load which it should be. Now let’s add in a new data center load which just shifts our entire load up with the peak now exceeding the the grid capacity. So traditionally this peak would force the grid to install more infrastructure generation transmission substations just to serve that new peak. It would raise the entire dash line. But it’s an intuitive conclusion to see that batteries could support that peak. And in the process we are increasing the utilization and the efficiency of our existing infrastructure. So with the growth of renewables and the strain on the grid, the need for storage is real and we are racing to solve these challenges. Our growth with Mega over the last several years has been exponential. We have over 36 gigawatt gawatt hours installed across 60 countries and over 2100 projects. And we have another 30 gawatt hours projected to come online soon with product that we have already shipped. We have scaled our manufacturing facilities to greater than 80 gatt hours of manufacturing capacity annually. But we recognize we still have a long ways to go. We’re just at the beginning as the world needs 2.3 terowatt hours annually to support a sustainable energy economy. We’re up for the challenge. But how do we go faster? I’m glad you asked. How do we meet this challenge of a growing energy demand and strained grid infrastructure? We need fully integrated solutions that consider the entire scope and the lifetime of these projects. We need solutions that are secure, scalable, resilient, and that inspire confidence in the technology. And quite simply, we need to figure out how to connect them to the grid faster. So when we started developing the latest iteration of MegaPac, we focused on three guiding principles. Number one, simplicity and speed. We recognize that complexity creates risk and it adds delays. In order to simplify and go faster, we need to figure out how to make it easier further upstream in the project. Number two, we needed a flexible platform. The grid’s needs in the industry are evolving quickly. We need a platform that is able to navigate supply chain complexities, policy changes, and evolving technologies. And number three, we need to continue what we do best and leverage our vertical integration. We need to enhance the things that we’ve done well with Megapac and learn from our past generations of products and and projects that we’ve built around the world. So, we’re excited to introduce our next generation product, the next iteration of innovation born from necessity. Yeah. All right. We’re excited. excited to announce Mega Blok, the latest evolution in our industrial storage product lineup. This isn’t just a new container or white box with new specs. We focused on this product being a plug-and-play platform. Hardware, software, services delivered as one, all from Tesla, and moving further up the value stream than we historically have. Our Mega Block platform is designed for 20 megawatt hours of usable AC energy, a 25-y year life, 10,000 cycles, and with an industryleading roundtrip efficiency of 91%. So, what is Mega Blok? Let’s take a closer look. Mega Blok is a pre-engineered medium voltage block that integrates our next generation Mega Pac 3es. We have eliminated the above ground cabling between the transformer and the mega packs using a new flexible bus bar assembly. So we’ve essentially made this part of the project now plug-and-play. Each block connects to a Tes Tesla system controller which orchestrates orchestrates control of the entire site of up to hundreds of megaps. We’ve combined these hardware innovations with the same power electronics, site controls, software, and firmware platforms that we’ve used on previous Megapac generations to reduce the risk and allow allow for a seamless technology transition. And really with Mega 3, we we optimized it uh we optimized the product for both mass and energy. It was important to us to be able to fit the maximum amount of energy per unit mass because mass is really where the system breaks. And we were able to fit 5 megawatt hours of AC usable energy into 86,000lb box, 28 foot long enclosure that can be shipped globally. We manufacture it in one place to maintain quality and ship a preassembled product anywhere in the world. Mega 3 is optimized for up to eight hour applications and it builds on our proven silicon carbide Tesla inverters and our fire protection system. The new thermal bay is drastically simplified. It uses the Tesla Model Y heat pump essentially on steroids and has 78% fewer connections which minimizes failure points. We’ve al also introduced a larger larger battle battery module and a larger a larger cell leveraging the latest in cell technology. And I wanted to talk about the cell and the supply chain a little bit because obviously that’s a that’s a key component in the industry right now. The Mega 3 is using a 2.8 liter cell. is co-engineered with Tesla’s cell team and sourced from reliable vendors worldwide. And now with Tesla Mega factories in the US and China, we’ll be sourcing cells from the US, Southeast Asia, and China, making Mega Blok a flexible platform ready to handle supply disruptions, policy changes, and technology evolution. For example, we made sure that the platform didn’t need to be overhauled if we want to introduce a 5 liter cell. We have multiple transformer vendors qualified and tested to validate performance from the cell level to the medium voltage level. MegaC 3 will be manufactured in Houston in late 2026 with a manufacturing capacity of 50 gatt hours per year. Mega Blok works even in the harshest climates with an industryleading operating range down to -40 degrees C up to 60° which means we can operate from the northern reaches of Alaska and Canada to the hottest parts of the Adakama desert in Chile and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And one of our core principles again in designing MegaC 3 was simplicity. It’s easy to make things more complicated as you’re thinking about uh evolving a new product line and we wanted to avoid that. We wanted to do what we did well with Megapek 2 XL which was build a product in the factory that is factory tested ship it to the field ready to connect to the grid with zero on-site assembly. To that effect, MegaC 3 can be easily transported around the uh easily transported using a seven axle trailer with no on-site assembly and with a higher energy rating. We have less mega packs, reducing the cost. And we went from up to 24 cable connections between the mega pack and the transformer down to three simple bus bar connections. Overall, Mega Balk is installed with 23% less labor hours, 30 up to 40% lower costs, and it’s engineered for site level density. Now, it’s it’s no secret that the industry has been trending towards higher and higher energy density containers. But as we developed this product, we realized there was a fundamental problem with that approach. Once you exceed the maximum shipping weight, you introduce risky and costly transportation permits and trailers, or you you resort to on-site assembly, installing batteries in the field, validating, integrating, commissioning them, and not doing that in a factory setting. And the metric that actually matters is site level density, which includes the clearances on the ground needed to install and service your product. Said simply, it’s it’s it’s not about what you can fit on your site. It’s I’m sorry, it is what you can fit on the site. It’s not about what you can fit in the box. This is where we put our focus and our energy site level energy density and testing in the factory. And with that focus, Mega Pac delivers an industryleading site level density Commissioning speed. Commissioning speed is key. It really is what drives value because time is money. Especially to a lot of people in this room. These large capital projects are tough. They require hundreds of people working across several disciplines over the course of months or years. Things that might go wrong probably will go wrong in that process. And you need a partner that’s going to stand by you through the whole process. With Mega Blok, we are targeting to commission 1 gawatt hour in 20 business days, which is the equivalent of bringing power to 400,000 homes in less than a month, which is crazy. H how are we planning to do that? Like most things at Tesla, we are ruthlessly attacking every opportunity to save our customers time. simplify the process, remove steps, automate as much as you can. One example is how we use simulation. So, we like to bring our customers and sometimes utilities and grid operators into a room with our engineers, sometimes months before the mega packs are even delivered to the site. And we can take your actual hardware and your software controls, the actual software that you’ll be using on your site, simulate the grid at the exact point in the grid where you where you will be connecting, and run a bunch of simulations, control scenarios, grid grid uh grid scenarios to see is this going to work like I thought it would work. It’s essentially a peak into the future to see if the project is going to work. Our customers love it. It’s a great opportunity to sort out different bugs in the software and it allows you to have confidence that when the mega packs are connected to the grid, it is going to work. Commissioning this fast is a great example of how our vertical integration, our engineers across the full spectrum allow us to serve our customers. So at Tesla, we we do more than build the batteries. With most battery OEMs and integrators, you have to go to different companies for different parts. The batteries for one, the inverter from someone else, service from someone else, maybe site controls again for a fourth counterpart. And you can imagine piecing all those things together and being successful can be difficult. What sets us apart and what we’re proud about is our ability to provide all your needs in one place to be your partner through the whole process. We provide hardware, software, service fully integrated in one package. And I just wanted to take a moment to talk about how this full ecosystem has helped our customers. Auto bidder is our autonomous energy trading platform. It’s built all right. It’s built by Tesla’s machine learning optimization software engineers. And in its most basic form, it is buying low and selling high. But in reality, there is hundreds of decisions that need to be ha that need to occur in real time in order to maximize profits. So here’s an example leaderboard po uh leaderboard from Urkott and Texas of one of Tesla’s projects. And it shows us at the top of the leaderboard in revenue per megawatt installed. And the reason I wanted to bring this up is that it’s this site is not as an exception. Auto Bidder launched in 2017 and we’ve maintained leadership in every market we operate in by constantly adapting and evolving our algorithm. We’re excited to launch into France later this year. We discussed grid forming software at investor day a few years ago and we talked about how it’s going to be the future of the grid and honestly there’s been a ton of momentum over the past couple years. So what is it exactly? The analogy is that it contributes to grid stability the way a car shock absorber dampens vibrations and keeps the ride smooth. And the reality is you can’t have a fully sustainable grid run on run on renewables without grid forming software. It’s what allows us to take the traditional generation off of the grid. And I still I still frequently hear that this technology is not ready and it’s still in the R&D phase. This is simply not true. Tesla has been deploying grid forming software since 2016. We have it operating on over 600 projects. 600 projects across 4 gawatt hours with 10 gawatt hours coming online soon. Here you’re looking at plus powers plus powers project in Aahu. This project allowed the island to start the start decommissioning and start taking the last coal power plant offline. It represents over 20% of the island’s peak load. And recently, and a few times actually, the battery has been able to stabilize the grid when one of the generators trips offline. It’s doing that using grid forming software. So, it works. It is the future. And we are excited to see how it stabilizes grids around the world. All right. Our global service organization, this team is the best. They’re they’re they’re the best team in the world. And we’re super proud. We’re super proud of them. And I say that because over this last year they we we had 99.3% uptime on our projects around the world. And that is a big fleet to maintain above 99%. So yeah. So how how are we doing this? Again, it’s like everything else. Simplify the process, remove steps, automate where you can. We are using automation to detect issues and to trigger our field service teams to action around the world. We have over-the-air firmware updates that increase the performance and the security of the product over the lifetime of the project, just like we do with the vehicles. And we have an entire engineering team building software and hardware service tools that are purpose-built for Mega, making every step quicker and faster and focusing on time. This year we also launched our certified service provider program. This enables our customers and third parties access to all the service tools that our internal teams have been using for years. This enables our customers like Southern Company to take advantage to take MegaPack service into their own hands. We are excited to bring our full software suite and our service platform to Mega Blok. And one day, not too distant future, we can see Optimus being a field service technician, reducing costs for both us and for our customers. Mega Blok builds on 10 years of project experience around the world. It is simple, it’s fast to install, it’s flexible, and you get all the integrated service and software that you’ve come to love by working with Tesla. Because with Tesla and really it’s been been like this since the beginning of the mega pack program. The project is really our product. Global power infrastructure is under pressure and we need scalable and reliable energy solutions that can deploy quickly. Mega Block accelerates the ability to solve these problems. The people in this room, you guys are the ones changing the world. You guys are building the projects. You’re developing it over the course of a long time and investing your money. We are excited to transform. We are excited and humbled to transform the grid with you. Together, we can deploy the terowatt hours needed to power a sustainable future. And tonight, we’re excited to have a prototype of Mega Pac 3 upstairs. I just want to say thank you to everyone that has made this trip. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for for being partners in all these large projects and for trusting Tesla with those projects. Have a great night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can do
Mike Snyder, VP of Tesla Energy, walks us through the next chapter of utility-scale energy storage.
Megapack is our utility-scale energy storage platform, a key part of our mission to achieve sustainable abundance via sustainable energy. Megapack stores energy when production is high & discharges/releases it when the grid needs it – balancing renewables & supporting a reliable grid.
Megablock is our pre-engineered medium-voltage block:
– Designed for 20 MWh AC, 25-year life & over 10,000 cycles 91% round-trip efficiency at medium voltage, inclusive of auxiliary loads
– Ambient operating temperature range, from -40C to 60C
– 23% faster to install with up to 40% lower construction costs
– Site-level density of 248 MWh AC-per-acre, with all clearances needed for installation and service
Megablock uses Megapack 3, with:
– Proven inverter & fire protection system
– A drastically simplified thermal bay with 78% fewer connections
– Latest cell technology: supply from the US, Southeast Asia & China
– 50 GWh per year manufacturing capacity
Deliveries start in the second half of 2026
Software & services from Tesla – demonstrated across 36+ GWh global operating fleet
Learn more: https://www.tesla.com/megapack
Intro: 0:00-0:42
Sustainable Abundance: 0:42-2:20
Energy Demand is Increasing: 2:20-6:15
Introducing Megablock: 6:15-14:31
Megapack Ecosystem: 14:31-21:50
